Lightning Bolt
by RiderWitchVampire7
Summary: Hiccup wants to survive dragon training and go on with life without disappointing his dad too much. Fate has other ideas. Hiccup is dragged to a world five years in the future, with dragons, long-lost parents, safety, and friendships- and somehow he is the one who made it happen. Hiccup realizes that his Berk could be much more- but can he do it now that everything has changed?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Greetings, my faithful readers… or new readers… or not-so-faithful readers… welcome anyway. This is my first non-OC-centric story, so if you feel someone is acting OOC, let me know, and if I agree I will try to fix it. Also, I've posted both the prologue and the first chapter in the same chapter because it bugs me when the chapter number on the website doesn't line up with the actual number… yep, that's pretty much it.**

 **Prologue**

"Hookfang, help! The whole flock is after me!"

Hiccup looked up as Snotlout ran past him on the path, pursued by five or six angry Terrible Terrors. He glanced at Toothless beside him, who shrugged, and at Hookfang, who was sunning himself a few feet from the path and eyeing his rider lazily before deciding to ignore it.

"What happened this time, Snotlout?" Hiccup asked his cousin as he ran in circles chased by small dragons.

"I took something they were playing with and now they're all going to get me!"

Toothless snorted, and Hiccup nodded in agreement. "Sorry, I think you've brought that on yourself."

Snotlout sprinted into the village while Hiccup and his dragon followed at a more reasonable pace. Hiccup winced when he heard a crashing sound- he wanted nothing more than to walk the other way, but as Chief of Berk he should probably try to fix the problem before property got destroyed and a fight broke out. He jogged the rest of the short distance to the village center to find Snotlout on his back with a pile of empty buckets scattered around him and the Terrors flapping around his head, squawking angrily. Toothless gave a short roar and they scattered.

"Did the Terrors take it?" Hiccup asked.

"Take what?" Snotlout groaned, sitting up.

"Whatever object they were chasing you for."

"Nah. You can have it. It's just a rock." the young Viking tossed him a thin stone, and Hiccup grabbed at it.

"Ouch!" he cried when the object cut his hand. He saw that it was a thin stone disk, with sharpened edges. It was circular, made of smooth grey stone, but with a jagged white line running from the top to the middle. He could tell it was the top because there was a small hole bored there.

"It's probably jewelry, part of a necklace… Sharpened to be a weapon in an emergency, I guess," Hiccup said. "I'll ask around and see if anyone's lost it."

Toothless rumbled to get his attention, and Hiccup looked up at the sky. "But first let's get to the Mead Hall before it rains."

Thunder rumbled in the distance as Hiccup got onto his dragon's back and they flew to the Hall, followed by Snotlout on Hookfang, who was no longer sunning himself due to the lack of sunlight.

Hiccup heard the rain come down a few seconds after he closed the door behind them. "That was close… Good thing we didn't get caught in that, huh bud?"

Toothless warbled in agreement. He was a bit more weather-proof than his rider, but he didn't particularly enjoy getting soaked in the cold pre-winter storms.

" _There_ you are!" Hiccup turned to see a blonde Viking and her Nadder approaching him. Hiccup grinned and gave her a quick kiss in greeting before going through his dragon's saddlebag to find a bandage for his hand.

"Anything interesting happen that I missed?" Astrid asked as she scratched Toothless' head.

"No, just the usual. Pacified a grouchy Gronckle, solved an argument over a broken fence, saved Snotlout from being mauled by Terrible Terrors, sliced my hand open on a sharp rock. You?"

"Nothing major. I got the dragon race all organized for tomorrow with Fishlegs… I think he's updating the dragon manual with your mother."

Hiccup nodded. "That reminds me… Do you recognize this as anyone's? Snotlout stole it from the Terrors who might have stolen it from someone else." He passed the stone pendant to her.

"No, but your mother might know."

The two of them walked to a table at the back of the hall, Hiccup raising a hand in acknowledgement when a few men raised their tankards and called "Chief!" in greeting.

"Hiccup! Your mom knows so much about dragons!" Fishlegs said as Hiccup approached the table where his mother and his friend were jotting notes down and making sketches, watched over by a curious Stormcutter and a mildly interested Gronckle.

"I know, you've mentioned it a few times," Hiccup replied, amused, as he sat down, and Astrid sat beside him, laying her axe on the table. "Which dragon are you writing about this time?"

"Snow wraiths. We had a couple in the Bewilderbeast's nest," Valka answered.

"Where are Ruffnut and Tuffnut?" Fishlegs wondered.

Astrid shrugged. "Last I saw, near one of the farms. They're probably sheltering from the store somewhere."

Hiccup hoped that wherever they were, they weren't going to cause any trouble he'd have to deal with tomorrow.

"Do any of you know who this belongs to?" Astid checked, holding out the stone disk.

"No, I don't recognize it," Valka replied, and Fishlegs shrugged.

"I'll figure it out. Maybe it's been lost for a while," Hiccup said, taking the stone.

"Would you say snow wraiths prefer icy areas or areas with deep snow?" Fishlegs asked.

Hiccup listened to their discussion for a few minutes before Snotlout came over. "I don't think I have a fish diet but I'm hungry!" the Viking interrupted.

"Let's eat," Astrid agreed. Fishlegs closed the book of dragons and Hiccup left the stone on it while they went to get dinner.

Outside, lightning flashed.

Chapter 1

Thunder boomed as Hiccup closed the door to the mostly empty Mead Hall.

"Alright. Where did Astrid go wrong in the ring today?" Gobber asked as Hiccup walked to the table.

"I mistimed my somersault dive. It was sloppy. It threw off my reverse tumble," the Viking teen answered unhappily.

"Yeah, we noticed," Ruffnut replied, her eye roll almost audible in her voice.

"No, no, you were great, that was so 'Astrid'," Snotlout protested, gesturing.

"She's right. You have to be tough on yourselves," Gobber replied. "Where did Hiccup go wrong?"

Hiccup winced as the other teens clamored to speak.

"Uh, he showed up?" Ruffnut began.

"He didn't get eaten," her twin added.

"He's never where he should be," Astrid said firmly.

"Thank you, Astrid. You need to live and breathe the stuff. The dragon manual." Gobber dropped a leather-bound book on the table. "Everything we know about every dragon we know of," he said, making eye contact with each of them and tapping the book for emphasis. Hiccup noted there were varying levels of interest in his statement- Fishlegs looked about to burst from excitement, while the twins leaned on their elbows, trying to balance their forks on the table. Hiccup eyed the book with hope and curiosity. Maybe it would have some answers about that Night Fury he had shot down.

 _And let go,_ he reminded himself.

Gobber looked up as thunder rumbled again. "No attacks tonight."

The twins sat up in horror. "Wait, you mean _read_?" Tuffnut realized.

"While we're still _alive_?" Ruffnut added.

"Why read words when you can just kill the stuff the words tell you stuff about?" Snotlout agreed incredulously.

"Oh, I've read it, like, seven times," Fishlegs said eagerly. "There's this water dragon that sprays boiling water at your face, and- and there's this other one that buries itself for like a week, and-"

"Yeah, that sounds great. See, there was a chance I was going to read that," Tuffnut interrupted.

"But, now…" Ruffnut continued, looking a little repulsed.

"You guys read, I'll go kill stuff," Snotlout announced, pushing the bench back from the table. The twins followed, and Fishlegs, who was still spouting dragon facts.

Hiccup's heart leapt when he saw who was left. "So, I guess we'll share-"

"Read it," Astrid said, looking away and shoving the book towards him.

"All mine, then. Wow, okay, so I'll see you… uh…" he realized he was babbling as the door closed with a thud. "...tomorrow."

Hiccup sighed as he fiddled with the cover. Maybe it was better this way- no one would tease him when they came to the part about Night Furies. Or Gronckles. Or Monstrous Nightmares… Hiccup shook his head. The torches would probably be put out soon, so he found two candles and lit them to read by their light. He sat down and made to open the book when he saw a thin, round stone, about half the size of his palm, with a white jagged line running through it and a hole bored at the top.

Maybe Astrid or Ruffnut left it here… he could return it in the morning. He put it off to the side and opened the book.

"Dragon classifications…" he muttered to himself, feeling very alone in the huge dark room. "Strike class, fear class, mystery class… Thunder drum. This reclusive dragon inhabits sea caves and dark tide pools. When startled, the Thunderdrum produces a concussive sound that can kill a man at close range. Extremely dangerous, kill on sight." That wasn't what he was looking for- he had to survive basic dragon training before he even stood a chance against a sea dragon like that. "Timberjack. This gigantic creature has razor-sharp wings that can slice through full-grown trees. Extremely dangerous, kill on sight." He continued to flip through the book. "Burns its victims, buries its victims, chokes its victims, turns its victims inside out…" Hiccup's heart beat faster with each page turned. Why, oh _why_ had he thought it was a good idea to read this at night with only two candles for light? "Extremely dangerous… kill on sight, kill on sight, kill on sight-"

Hiccup stopped short when he flipped to a page that was almost completely empty but for a title at the top and a few words at the bottom.

"Night Fury," he read, a sense of dread starting to build in him. "Speed: unknown. Size: unknown. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. Never engage this dragon. Your only chance- Hide and pray it does not find you."

With trembling yet certain hands, Hiccup pulled out his notebook and laid his sketch of the Night Fury on top of the blank pages.

After staring at it for a moment, curiosity burning, he put his own notebook away, closed the dragon manual, and grabbed the stone pendant, yelping when he cut himself on the sharp edge. He glared at the stone sitting innocently there for a moment before carefully picking it up and blowing out the candles. He walked through the darkness to the door, which had come open again in the storm, and once the rain and wind died down a little, he stumbled through the shadow of the night to his house.

He got inside and shivered as he lit a fire, then grabbed a few furs and wrapped them around himself to warm up. After a few minutes, he was feeling warmer and more secure, back to reality.

Hiccup found a thin cord and threaded it through the hole of the stone that had been left in the Hall as he sat back down. He tied the knot and let it hang from his fingers, examining it as it slowly turned, reflecting the firelight on its smooth, polished surface.

It was probably Ruffnut's, Hiccup realized. Astrid didn't seem the type to wear much jewelry, but Ruffnut did seem the type to sharpen hers into weapons.

Hiccup smiled mirthlessly to himself. Maybe he should wear jewelry in dragon training. If he couldn't use a real weapon on a dragon, he certainly couldn't use a fake one, but it might confuse them long enough for him to escape. Or not. What did dragons know about who was supposed to wear necklaces and bracelets?

The jagged stripe of white caught his eye. It looked a bit like lightning… like the storm that was going on… _The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself…_

Hiccup shook himself. He was being ridiculous. There was a reason the Night Fury page was blank. There was no use pursuing it further. It would probably get out of that cove soon if it hadn't already, and it would be gone forever. Even if it stayed, who was he to take it on? He was the worst Viking Berk had ever seen. And if anyone found out he had caught it and let it go, the mocking would only increase.

No, it was best to keep his head down and try not to mess up anything too badly. Maybe he could check to see if the Night Fury was still there one more time. Maybe he could figure out how to become a proper Viking and make his father proud of him for once…

Hiccup's eyes drifted closed. He should probably get to bed, but why bother? It was already warm on the floor, and nobody else was home anyway…

Hiccup slowly woke up, noting blearily that the sun was pretty bright for early in the morning… He must have slept a little late… and this was definitely not his house!

Hiccup sat up suddenly, eyes darting around his surroundings. He was in a cave… One of the caves that let out onto the beach closest to the village. The ceiling was still several feet above his head as he stood, checking himself for injury. So far, so good, not counting the cut from the stone which he was somehow still holding and the bumps and scrapes he had acquired courtesy of dragon training…

Dragon training! If he was where he thought he was, based upon the sun it would have already started if not finished. He had to find Gobber and explain… but explain what, exactly? He had no idea how he had gotten here. Maybe the twins had carried him off in the night and left him? It was the only explanation he could think of. Unless he had actually been kidnapped… But he thought he recognized the cave…

Hiccup stepped outside and looked around, breathing a sigh of relief. It was definitely Berk's beach. A few Hooligan fishing vessels were even grounded here.

Hiccup jumped as he heard a great horn blown, deep and long. It sounded like it came from the island and not too far away! He jogged up the beach and reached the grassy strip of land between the pebbles and the forest, and saw Gobber also running towards the village.

"Gobber! I'm so sorry I missed training this morning!" Hiccup gasped. The blacksmith spun and reached for his weapon before spotting Hiccup and staring at him suspiciously, eyes narrowed.

"I swear, I went to sleep at the house last night, and I just woke up in a cave down on the beach. Maybe the twins knocked me out with something and dragged me there in the middle of the night… Or maybe not. It's the only thing I can think of. But I don't think it'll happen again!"

Gobber stared at him for another moment, looking for some reason at his legs, then at his face, then at his clothing, then at his feet and his face again. A confused and very odd expression was on his face. Was it just Hiccup's imagination, or did his mentor look a little different today?

"Eh, lad, I don't know what to tell ye… You should probably just come back with me to the village for now."

Hiccup blinked, now also confused. "Uh, okay. I guess I was heading there anyway." He followed the other man as they approached the dragon ring. As they grew closer, Hiccup heard cheers and shouting.

"Whoever chose to stay back from the voyage sure can make a lot of noise," he muttered. Then he yelped and dove to the ground, covering his head as he saw a Monstrous Nightmare, swooping down from the sky. "Dragon raid! In the middle of the day? Whose idea was this?"

Gobber didn't answer, only running up the hill that overlooked the ring, and Hiccup followed. But Hiccup stopped, baffled, when he reached the top of the hill. The stands around the ring were filled with Vikings, all yelling and applauding. Hiccup knew that there weren't that many people who had stayed in the village during the current search for the dragon nest. In fact, he even recognized a few people who he knew had gone on the voyage!

"How long was I asleep in that cave?" Hiccup wondered to himself. He hurried after Gobber before the man could get lost in the crowd.

"Gobber-"

"Has anyone seen the Chief?" the blacksmith cried, pushing his way to the top of the ring, where Hiccup's father's chair sat. "Where is the Chief?"

Hiccup struggled to keep up with him, and when he reached the chief's stage, he stopped, bending over, putting his hands and his knees, and panting. "Gobber- explain- how long was I asleep in that cave?"

"The Chief is over there, I just saw him with Toothless," a Viking called to Gobber. Hiccup wondered who Toothless was- he had never met a Viking with that name. It seemed a rather unfortunate name, but not as bad as 'Hiccup.'

The smith nodded in thanks, and Hiccup looked at the ring while he waited for his father to show up. He saw that the bars and chains over the ring that kept the dragons in was gone. There was a large wooden structure in the middle of the ring, painted different colors and with baskets attached that seemed to hold sheep.

The crowd's cheering increased as a Hideous Zippleback sped towards the ring. Hiccup's eyes widened. Was the wooden platform some elaborate trap, with the sheep as the bait? It was good workmanship, Hiccup couldn't visibly see any way it could catch a dragon, but the Vikings around him all seemed excited for the doomed dragon to get closer.

Hiccup started to look away so he wouldn't have to see the dragon's bloody demise, but he stopped when he realized the dragon's two heads were much larger than they should be. A sheep dropped from one of the heads and fell into one of the baskets, and the cheering increased.

Hiccup's jaw dropped when he realized there were _people_ sitting on the dragon's necks. He only caught a quick glimpse, but it told him enough.

"How did _Ruffnut_ and _Tuffnut_ get on the necks of a dragon? Whose idea was this? They'll destroy the entire village and then kill themselves!" Hiccup cried, grabbing Gobber's good arm. "You have to get them off and get the dragon!"

Gobber looked at him with a puzzled but grim expression. "I'm sure this is very confusing, lad, believe me, I have no idea how you got here either. But the dragons won't harm em. Probably."

"What… Gobber, do you know who I am?" Hiccup tried desperately.

The smith put a hand on his shoulder. "As far as I can tell, you're Hiccup. That leaves us with a bit of a problem. Hopefully the chief will show up and can straighten this out… Ah, what's the last thing ye remember, aside from going to sleep and waking up in tha' cave?"

"We just started dragon training, we were in the Mead Hall and you told us to read the dragon manual…" Hiccup trailed off as he saw a black shape approaching. His eyes widened- were all the dragons attacking in daylight now? But Hiccup knew he was the only one who had ever seen this kind of dragon. "Gobber, that's a Night Fury, I know what they look like, get down!"

"Tha's not a Night Fury. That's _the_ Night Fury," Gobber said, before shouting, "Make way for the Chief!"

Hiccup suddenly had a realization and relaxed. "This is all a weird dream. It all makes sense now." Reading the dragon manual must have affected him even more than he had thought.

"I don't know if yer dreams are normally this real. Mine aren't," Gobber replied, but Hiccup barely heard him as he was once again confronted by a big, black dragon, with glowing green eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"Hey… I'd appreciate if you didn't kill me…" Hiccup said shakily, stepping back.

"Don't scare him, bud. Let's see what this is about first." A new voice spoke. Both the dragon and Hiccup stepped back, and Hiccup saw a young man swinging to the ground off the back of the dragon.

The man was taller than Hiccup, and was muscular but thin by Viking standards. He wore leather and strange black armor with different straps and buckles, and his lower left leg had been replaced with a fancy metal prosthetic. Hiccup looked up at the man's face and took in his stance- intelligent, flashing green eyes beneath short but messy hair, and he radiated cool confidence and authority, despite his un-Vikinglike stature. The people nearby looked to him with trust and respect. Hiccup found himself impressed and a little in awe of the somehow familiar yet totally alien man.

Then the man looked back at Hiccup, and his eyes widened in shock, as he looked at the smaller Viking's face, then his feet, then taking in his clothing, then looking back at his face again, as if he was seeing a ghost.

"Gobber… My mother or father would have told me if I had a brother, right?... It's the only thing that makes sense right now," the man said uncertainly.

Hiccup realized that the other man did look similar enough to him to possibly be his older sibling, but shook his head. "You can't be my brother, my dad would have definitely mentioned it if he had a more impressively Vikinglike son. And my mother is dead."

"Are you forfeiting or something? Yes, we might have a chance of winning!"

Hiccup spun around to see that Ruffnut and her brother were circling the platform on the Zippleback, gleeful looks on their faces under the colorful warpaint.

"Wait!" Tuffnut suddenly yelled. "Kid, what is that you're holding?"

"Uh… this stone I found in the Mead Hall. Is it yours?" Hiccup replied uncertainly as he held up the stone on the string. Didn't Tuffnut recognize him?

Tuffnut jumped off the dragon's neck while his sister protested. Now that they were on the same level, Hiccup could see that the other Viking was taller than he remembered, and maybe some other things had changed but it was hard to tell with the warpaint. Tuffnut stepped toward Hiccup, taking the stone by the string and looking at it thoughtfully, eyes narrowed and a hand on his chin. Hiccup looked back to Gobber, the strange man, and the Night Fury, who exchanged glances that seemed to say _here we go again._ That, Hiccup could understand. But was the dragon _agreeing_ with them?

"I've got it!" Tuffnut exclaimed. "This is the Lightning Bolt of Lognog the Lost!"

The Night-Fury riding man decided to humor him. "Ah, what is it, and who is Lognog?"

"Legend says it was found by a Viking named… Lognog. He picked it up and cut his hand on it, and he left it on a beach. And then a few years before, when Lognog was on that beach during a thunderstorm, he found the stone and ended up cutting _his_ hand. He woke up in a cave on a different beach during the same time period as the first, older Lognog, and he only got back to his own time and universe when he cut his hand again and went back to the cave."

"Wait, what? That is ridiculous, the chances of something like that happening are… Nevermind." A new voice joined the conversation, a person who seemed to be Fishlegs wearing warpaint, and there was a painted Gronckle standing behind him.

"No, see, like this." Tuffnut went through a saddlebag on the Night Fury's bag and pulled out a charcoal pencil and a notebook. He flipped to an open page and drew a line. "This is the line of time. I call it the timeline. Right here," he made a mark on the line, "Is where Lognog found the Lightning Bolt. Back here," he made another marking earlier in the line, "Is where it went, and his earlier self picked it up. But when it got there, the past was changed, so it split the timeline into two different universes." He drew a line branching off of the 'earlier point'. "Lognog the earlier went forward to see Lognog the later, and then went back to the past except it was now a different universe so anything that changed didn't affect Lognog the older."

"No wonder he was called Lognog the Lost. I'm lost just hearing ye explain it," Gobber said.

"No, no, this makes sense," the Night Fury rider said, looking back and forth between the drawing, the stone, and Hiccup.

"Yeah. See, I told you- Wait, you're actually agreeing with me?" Tuffnut said, shocked.

The Night Fury rider nodded. "There's nothing else that makes sense at this point. How else would he have gotten here?" He gestured to Hiccup, making Tuffnut and Fishlegs notice him for the first time.

"Whoa. Creepy. But cool," Tuffnut said, eyeing the stone again. Fishlegs quickly took it from him before he could cut himself with it.

"Alright, what's going on? We're going to lose the race!" Ruffnut finally lost her patience and landed the Zippleback on the platform.

"They found the Lightning Bolt of Lognog the Lost."

"Awesome. Don't get cut with it. I don't really want a smaller version of you running around."

"We already have a small person here."

"Look, I don't want to cause any more trouble," Hiccup said, now more and less confused. "I got cut with it, but I'm pretty sure I'm the one who was brought here because I'm totally lost. What's with all the dragons?"

"We made peace with them," the Night Fury rider said. "They were only raiding us because back at their nest, there was a giant dragon who ate them if they didn't bring back enough food. We took care of the giant dragon, and we're all friends now."

"You mean you and Toothless took down the gigantic dragon," Fishlegs corrected.

The man shrugged modestly. "It was a group effort."

Fishlegs shook his head, and turned to Hiccup. "He's the first one who befriended a dragon, and the one who figured it all out in the first place."

Hiccup nodded. "Okay… So where is my supposed future self who cut himself with the fancy rock to bring me here? Let me guess… He obviously wasn't killed in dragon training or by anything else because I'm here… But I don't see him in the crowd, so he's probably injured and back at Gobber's, or maybe he got in another fight with Dad and ran off… and he has a Terrible Terror as a dragon friend."

Ruffnut and Tuffnut burst out laughing, while Fishlegs looked a little disturbed, the Night Fury rider ducked his head sheepishly, and Gobber had a look of anticipation on his face.

"Ah, well, first, lad, yer father's gone to Valhalla. He died protecting his people and his son."

Hiccup blinked in shock- his father, dead? Protecting him, or some future version of him? Did he really care that much? If Tuffnut was right… maybe things could change when he went back.

"But I guess ye haven't been introduced to the new chief," Gobber continued. Hiccup assumed he meant the Night Fury rider, and found himself relieved that it was this stranger… maybe his cousin or something, because they looked so similar… and not Snotlout.

Gobber turned to the strange young man who was presumably the chief. "Chief, this is Hiccup from the past, as I'm sure yeh've figured out." Gobber turned back to the younger Viking. "Hiccup… this is the bringer of peace to dragons and Hairy Hooligans, rider of Toothless the Night Fury and Alpha, dragon master, slayer of the Red Death, Chief Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, hope and pride of Berk."

 **A/N: Thanks for reading so far! Questions, comments, suggestions, and constructive criticism are welcome. Also, I soon won't have the laptop I am currently writing this from anymore, so I may have to write from my phone. And I'm going on vacation. Neither of which are things you want to hear after the first chapter of a promising story… unless you don't like it, in which case it wouldn't matter. But I have most of the second chapter written, and will try to update with a week or two between each at the most.**

 **Now I will do a bit of shameless self-recommendation: I know that most people are more willing to click on a main-character-centric story than an OC-based story, including me. But I have posted eleven chapters of this other story already, which is canon-friendly with a few of my own ideas twisted to fit, and with a bit more twisting it could eventually fit in this universe too… So go ahead and check it out if you like my writing or have nothing else to do :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Here's chapter 2! I haven't started chapter 3 yet, but it should be up relatively soon. I typed about half of this thing on my phone, so at least I know it works! Also, whenever it says 'Hiccup,' it means the younger one. The older one is 'Chief Hiccup,' 'The Night Fury rider,' etc. It should be mostly self-explanatory. Thanks for reading, now without further ado, here is chapter 2!**

"I want to dump a bucket of cold water on his head."

"No, have Toothless lick him."

"No, nope, nobody's licking anyone!"

Hiccup's eyes cracked open and he saw feet- one boot, one metal and wooden leg, and two scaly paws.

He quickly scrambled to his feet, swaying when he got a rush of dizziness from the sudden motion.

"N-no cold water or licking, please," Hiccup said to the twins, before turning back to the rest of the group. "Fainting in shock seems to be a new hobby of mine, or maybe I'm allergic to being in close proximity to Night Furies," he tried, his mouth buying time while his mind reeled.

Chief Hiccup smiled kindly. "I know… if Tuffnut is correct, then we were technically the same person up until that stone appeared…" he blinked and shook his head. "I'll wrap my head around the strangeness of that statement later. But my point is, I know exactly how you feel."

Hiccup noticed for the first time that Chief Hiccup's left hand was bandaged. "I… ah…" He was saved from answering when another dragon landed on the platform, and a man and a woman climbed up as well.

"Hiccup, what's going on? Is something wrong?" A young woman who could only be Astrid called down from atop a Deadly Nadder. Astrid, of all people, _not_ fighting a dragon?

"Is the race being stopped?" Spitelout asked.

Chief Hiccup sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "No, continue with the race. Give me some time to figure this out… I'll explain later, I don't want to draw any more attention than we already have."

The twins and Fishlegs took off on their dragons, and Astrid searched the chief's face in concern for a moment before racing after them. Hiccup noticed and wondered what was going on between the older version of the girl he admired and the older version of himself- she seemed to care, or at least didn't seem to think him less important than the dirt under her boots. Was there hope for the his own future?

"Spitelout, go tell the crowd there's nothing to worry about, just a personal matter. I'll tell the council later, but for now, the race isn't over."

The man nodded, and the chief turned back to Hiccup and placed a hand on his shoulder. "There's someone you should meet." He beckoned to the woman who had come up the stairs with Spitelout. She was followed by a dragon with four wings that Hiccup had never seen before, but he was sure that according to the dragon manual it was extremely dangerous and should be killed on sight.

"Hiccup, who is this young man?" the woman asked, looking the younger Hiccup over, but she did not seem to recognize him, though her eyes lingered on his face with some confusion for a moment.

"First, let me explain this stone." The chief held up Lognog's bolt, which he had gotten back from Fishlegs.

"The pendant you asked me about yesterday?" the woman replied, not understanding.

"Right. So, according to Tuffnut…" he explained what the Zippleback rider had said.

"You know you can't rely on every tale he spins," the woman said. "But though this tale seems more far-fetched than usual, I don't think you should test it if he does happen to be right."

"We're pretty confident he's right this time," the chief sighed, looking significantly at Hiccup the younger. The woman's eyes widened and she stepped towards Hiccup, putting a hand on one of his shoulders as she bent down and searched his face.

"How old are you?" the woman wondered quietly.

"Fifteen," Hiccup replied uncertainly. "Should I know you?"

"No. You only know I was carried off by a four-winged dragon," the woman replied, standing up and stepping back.

"I've heard of one woman eaten by a dragon with…" Hiccup's voice died. "Carried… off… no… You're… my mother?" Hiccup finished weakly. He was _not_ going to faint again.

"Yes," she answered softly. "Or at least this world's Hiccup's mother, although I suppose that doesn't matter at this point as I've stayed far away for both of your childhoods."

Hiccup nodded slowly, still confused and shocked. His mother was alive? After all these years? She was safe and healthy back in his time somewhere?

"We have a lot to catch up on," the older Hiccup continued. "I'll explain as best I can while we wait for the race to finish."

Hiccup nodded as the chief sat on his chair. The Night Fury curled up beside it, eyeing Hiccup curiously. Hiccup stepped forward nervously when the chief beckoned him closer.

"Alright, so it all started when I… You? We?" Chief Hiccup shook his head. "Anyway, a Night Fury was shot down by Hiccup. As you know, dad went off to find the dragon nest and stuck Hiccup in dragon training, while Hiccup found the Night Fury and set him free." Hiccup thought it was weird to hear both of them described in third person, but nodded. "Hiccup failed pretty badly on the first day of dragon training, but was the last one standing. He wondered why the Night Fury hadn't killed him, and so went searching for him, and found him in a nice little cove that the Night Fury was unable to escape. He sketched the dragon, they saw each other, and then Hiccup went back to the Mead Hall, where the other recruits were eating dinner…"

"That's when the I saw the stone," Hiccup said hesitantly.

"I guess that's where everything changes, then," the chief reasoned. "I went home and fell asleep. You?"

Hiccup blinked. "I… uh… I did the same, but took the Lognog's Bolt with me, and woke up in a cave on the beach. I found Gobber, and he brought me up here."

Chief Hiccup nodded. "Okay… Well, I woke up in my house like I normally did. I went to dragon training, Gobber released a Deadly Nadder- Astrid's Nadder, Stormfly- and once again I did pretty badly. Later, I went back to the cove with a fish, and I managed to get the Night Fury's trust, but I ended up staying in the cove overnight to do it. In the process, I also figured out Night Furies have retractable teeth." The Night Fury lifted its… no, _his_ head and demonstrated, teeth flashing out of his gums before vanishing again. "Thus, Toothless."

"He really didn't attack you or anything? He wasn't mad you shot him down?" Hiccup wondered.

Chief Hiccup chuckled. "Oh, he was. That's why he didn't let me touch him until morning- There goes Snotlout!"

Hiccup turned to see his cousin on the neck of a red, flaming Monstrous Nightmare, also wearing warpaint and shouting as he dropped a sheep into a basket.

"Sitting out on the game because you know I'll beat you?" the Viking taunted as he circled the dragon around the chief.

"Nope, just thought I'd give you a chance to get second place after Astrid for once," the chief replied cheerfully.

"Astrid? She is going down…" The Nightmare and its rider flew off.

"So, the next day was physical exercises and practice with with weapons," the older Hiccup continued. "But that night, we met on the watchtower, and Gobber mentioned that if a dragon loses its wings or tail, it can't fly, and it's dead. So I spent the night making a tailfin for Toothless, which sort of worked, and in the process figured out dragons hate eels. I used an eel in training against the Zippleback- Barf and Belch, the twins' dragon."

"And everyone was completely shocked?" Hiccup guessed.

"Yep. The rest of dragon training went pretty smoothly- I worked on helping Toothless fly again, and in the process learned stuff that allowed me to disable the dragons in training. Everyone loved me, except Astrid, who was kinda resentful, and it was hard to get away from everyone to work with Toothless. I didn't go on a real flight until the day Dad returned, and that was a near-death experience, but afterwards Toothless and I caught some fish and were joined by a few Terrible Terrors. I gave one a fish, it curled up next to me, started purring like a cat, and let me stroke its wings. That's when I realized we were all wrong about dragons."

Hiccup nodded, and figured out that the other Hiccup would have only been a couple weeks older than Hiccup himself was now. If one of the Hiccups hadn't found the stone, that's what Hiccup would have done and learned… His life would become infinitely better within the span of a couple weeks.

Hiccup was jolted from his dazed thoughts when another loud horn sounded. "What was that?"

"The black sheep has been released. It's worth ten points," Chief Hiccup answered.

"Of course it is," Hiccup mumbled, and the older Viking smiled sympathetically.

"I know, it's a lot to take in. I'm the one who started it and helped it happen over the last six years, and it even takes me by surprise sometimes."

"So, did Dad believe you when you… Well, did you tell him?" Hiccup asked, curious where the story and his possible future went.

The chief shook his head. "When he got home, he was so proud of me and all I'd done in the ring, I didn't want to disappoint him or risk his anger and tell him he was wrong. The next day, I took down the Gronckle- Meatlug, Fishlegs' dragon- and was chosen by Gothi to be the one to fight the Nightmare. Astrid… wasn't happy. I knew I couldn't kill the dragon, so I packed up and got ready to leave with Toothless, but she followed me, and- Here she comes!"

Hiccup turned and saw the blue Nadder- Rainfly? No, Stormfly- swiftly approaching, a black sheep clutched in its claws. A Nightmare, a Zippleback, and a Gronckle all chased after, but the sheep was dropped into a basket before any of them could reach it.

The crowd cheered as the Nadder landed next to the chief and his Night Fury, but Hiccup could only stare at the woman who gracefully leapt down, hugging her dragon before turning to the chief.

Her hair was no longer in a braid and held back with a kransen, but tied up on her head, and there was a ring on her left hand.

"And the winning team is Astrid Haddock and her Nadder Stormfly!" Gobber yelled. "We will have a feast in the Mead Hall to celebrate!"

The Vikings cheered. Hiccup just stood, jaw hanging open.

His future self was _married._ To _Astrid Hofferson…_ well, Haddock.

Things were definitely starting to look up for one scrawny fishbone. If he could even do all the things his other-universe self did…

"Oh, hey, you're still here!" Hiccup's thoughts were interrupted by one Thorston twin. Tuffnut got down from his Zippleback head. "Pretty cool, right? This is Belch, he's the one that makes sparks. The other one's Barf."

"And Barf is the cooler one, as we all know," Ruffnut said, getting off the other head. Belch sparked at her, irritated, but Ruffnut and Barf looked on smugly.

"See. You can't do much if Barf doesn't breathe any gas."

"Well, Barf can't make the gas explode without Belch, so if-"

"Please, enough, guys," Chief Hiccup intervened. "We need to figure out what's going on before the village gets any crazy ideas."

"Wow, weird," Snotlout said, stepping into the conversation. "He looks just like you, Hiccup… Is he your son?"

Hiccup's eyes widened and he shook his head as the chief groaned and facepalmed. "Case in point."

Snotlout yelped as Toothless whacked him with his tail. "What? It was an honest question!"

Astrid had broken away from the people congratulating her. "I'm sorry, what is going on?"

"I have the answer!" Tuffnut cried triumphantly.

Astrid gave him a look and turned to the chief.

"He's actually right this time," the dragon rider admitted. "Or at least his explanation makes more sense than anyone else's. I'll explain later once we have it all figured out, but they're expecting you at the feast, and I don't want to draw too much attention yet. So in a nutshell, the stone thing I found yesterday went to the past, splitting the timeline into two universes, grabbed my past self, and brought him here."

"Hi," Hiccup said nervously. Astrid's eyes flicked to his two whole legs before looking at his face.

"That is absolutely ridiculous… But he certainly can't be your son, he would have been born when you were seven at the oldest." Heads turned to Snotlout, who pretended to ignore them. "If you say that's what happened, I believe you… But I want more answers later."

"We all do," the chief assured her.

"Could we ask Gothi?" Fishlegs wondered. "She might know something."

"Good idea. I'm expected to make an appearance at the feast, I'll leave as soon as I can, but until then can you take him? I'm assuming that's alright with you," the chief said to Hiccup.

Hiccup nodded. The chief probably knew how he felt better than Hiccup did at this point.

"Would you mind if I came along?" the chief's mother- Hiccup's mother- asked.

Hiccup nodded. "Uh… sure…"

Fishlegs led the way down and they started walking down the path to Gothi's house.

"This is so exciting! A chance to learn about a mysterious part of Viking history! But you talked more the way I remember you." Fishlegs gushed.

"I have a witty comeback for most situations, but this one is beyond me," Hiccup said. "But what happened after Hiccup… er, the chief was chosen to fight the Nightmare? I thought he would have left with the Night Fury- Toothless. How did he convince everyone to stop fighting?"

"Astrid followed him, apparently. I'm not sure why he didn't just leave, it wouldn't matter if she told the village if he was already gone. But he caught her and took her for a ride on Toothless, I guess she forgave him and decided dragons weren't so evil, and Toothless took them to the nest and showed them the Red Death. The next day, Hiccup went into the ring with just a knife and a shield, dropped them, and tried to tame the Nightmare, but the chief… I mean your, uh, his father, was confused and angry and scared Hookfang. Hookfang attacked, Toothless somehow heard in the forest, and he came to save Hiccup. Toothless was captured, Hiccup accidentally gave away that the only way to find the nest was with a dragon, and so everyone went off to find the nest again."

"And they beat the Red Death?" Hiccup asked.

"Not exactly… It set fire to the whole fleet, stomped on the catapults… It was huge, it had a jaw strength of twenty-two, firepower twenty-seven, armor-"

"Fishlegs," Valka said.

"Right… anyway, Hiccup and the rest of us were still here, so he and Astrid dragged us to the arena, and he let the dragons out of their cages, calmed them, and then he got on the Nadder's back with Astrid and we all went to the nest. Chief Stoick and Gobber were distracting it to give the others time to escape, and then we came in and distracted it while Hiccup got Toothless. Then they fired at its wings, brought it up into the clouds…" Fishlegs shivered. "It was scary. We didn't know what was going on, except every once in a while we saw flashes of light and the Red Death's huge shadow. Then it came down, with its wings falling apart, and Toothless blasted its throat to set it on fire on the inside. It crashed to the ground, there was this huge fireball, and Hiccup fell… Toothless caught him, and they both fell, but Hiccup lost his leg. The dragons came back with us, and Berk hasn't been the same since."

Hiccup nodded numbly. Ride a dragon? Fight and blow up a bigger dragon the size of a mountain? Lose his _leg?_ He was having a hard time processing… well, everything.

They reached Gothi's house, climbed up the steps, and Fishlegs knocked on the door. It was opened by an old woman who still looked exactly the same to Hiccup. Fishlegs explained the situation as best as he could, and Gothi eyed Hiccup before gesturing them inside. They followed her into a room filled with stone boxes- where all the books and scrolls on various legends, traditions, and recipes for cures were kept, so they wouldn't burn if the house caught fire.

Hiccup and Valka waited in the doorway while Gothi checked in a few boxes, followed by Fishlegs, who obviously knew his way around the place. Eventually Gothi pulled out an old-looking scroll and shuffled back over, Fishlegs close behind her. Gothi carefully unrolled it, spreading it over the table. Hiccup nervously looked over with his more eager companions.

"Yep, it pretty much confirms what Tuffnut said, but there's a few things here that I'm not sure Lognog would have known, so I don't know who could have written it," Fishlegs said.

Hiccup looked over the scroll with the rest of them, but nobody could find the name or a sign of who had written it. Fishlegs continued.

"So, a few things we didn't know- according to this part here, some things are just fated to happen, no matter which universe they happened in. Usually deaths, marriages, major things like that, but some of those things were changed, too."

Valka spoke a minute later. "See, it seems simple to go back. You just have to cut yourself with the stone again in the cave." Hiccup was relieved to see that- as incredible as this place was, he still wasn't completely convinced it wasn't a weirdly vivid dream, and if it wasn't, he didn't really want to be stuck here. Life was much simpler back in his time… well, aside from trying to survive dragon training, being teased by his peers, and hiding a Night Fury in the woods.

"And… as a last resort, if everything fell apart… You could come back again, but it would be final, and there's a twenty-five percent chance of death in the return. And you could bring others with you, but the chance of surviving would be even less."

"Wait, so I can go home, risk-free, and then there's a possibility I could come back?" Hiccup checked, reading over the section Fishlegs was pointing to.

"Yeah, looks like it. The stone is linked to your blood in both universes." Hiccup found that thought to be a little disturbing, but chose not to comment. "To take people with you, they would have to cut themselves with the stone first. But then if you try to go back again, you'll die- no exceptions."

"So in theory the people you can take back is limited by the size of the cave?" Hiccup said, only a little sarcastically.

"Well, that and the increasing chances of death."

Gothi tapped another section of the scroll, and Fishlegs read it. "Oh, this looks important. While you're here, no time passes in your universe. When you go back, time will pass normally in both places, so if you wait a year before coming back here, a year will have passed here too."

"Good to know," Hiccup said a little faintly. It was all still feeling a little surreal.

They spent another few minutes looking at the scroll, but couldn't find anything else of use. They thanked Gothi and left. Hiccup glanced up at the sun- it was still only around noon.

"Let's go to the Mead Hall- there's food, and I don't think anyone will pay much attention to you in a crowd… Will they?" Valka wondered.

Fishlegs shrugged. "The odds aren't great, but they're not terrible either."

Hiccup walked beside them through the darkening village, falling behind a little as he looked around and saw everything that had changed. Most noticeable were the huge crowns of spiked ice that were scattered throughout the town, a couple of them seemed to have been chipped into to create what could only be a cold room for preserving things in the summer. The huge dragon-raid torches were also lowered like they were when not in use, but instead of being filled with wood, they were filled with fish, and he saw a small flock of Terrible Terrors excitedly wriggling through the pile of fish in one of them as they ate. There were what seemed to be stables near most of the houses, but with no horses in sight and the buckets were full of fish and other meat instead of oats. There was a system that brought water to all the houses to put out fires, and there were some other, non-dragon related machines- most unfamiliar, but a few Hiccup recognized as having designed himself. The rest, older Hiccup must have come up with.

Hiccup braced himself as they entered the Mead Hall, but nobody seemed to notice them, and only respectfully greeted Valka or offered their sympathies to Fishlegs before turning back to the feast.

"So, how often do these big dragon races happen anyway?" Hiccup wondered.

"Once a month," Valka replied. "Whenever the chief and Toothless enter, they usually win. Astrid and Stormfly win most often, but the others win their share. We've had other riders that weren't there today enter, and some have come close, but they've never won."

"And is there a big feast after every race?" Hiccup wondered incredulously.

"Yes, except in the winter." Valka replied.

"You'd be surprised how much food we have now, with the new machines and no dragon raids. Plus we have a trade agreement with one of the farming villages in the Peaceful Country," Fishlegs added.

Hiccup looked around the hall discreetly as they made their way to the head table. It was filled with people, and due to his height, or unfortunate lack thereof, he couldn't see much. But from what he could see, there were only a few dragons. He asked Valka about it.

"The dragons are intelligent and independent, like you or I, but they are very loyal to any human they befriend. Even so, there isn't enough room in the hall for every dragon in the village, so most are out doing their own thing. The champion's dragon is, of course, present, and as for Toothless… wherever my son goes, the dragon goes."

Hiccup saw that there were indeed the two dragons near their riders at the table, the blue Nadder still proudly painted. Hiccup also spotted the dragon that he thought was Fishlegs'- as it was also still multicolored- napping in a corner with a couple of other Gronckles, while Snotlout's Nightmare seemed to be fondly exasperated as its- his rider entered in a drinking contest, while the twins were hanging upside down from their dragon's necks and were attempting to throw food into each other's mouth.

"Did you learn anything?" Chief Hiccup asked when he saw them. Valka explained briefly while Fishlegs went over to see his dragon.

The chief nodded thoughtfully. "If the stone is really connected to our blood, nothing will happen if someone gets ahold of it, right?"

"I think so, but I wouldn't risk it," Valka replied.

The Night Fury rider thought for another moment. "I think it would be best if we told the village the truth, but we should keep the stone safe."

"Don't mention the stone specifically," Astrid suggested, "Just say an artifact or the gods sent him here… as I'm sure they did. No mortal has the power to do this."

The chief nodded. "You're right. Good idea."

"Won't I be kind of, uhh, attacked, harassed, surrounded by Vikings who want to see the time-traveling younger version of their chief?" Hiccup asked nervously, not agreeing with the plan.

"Easy," the chief waved his hand dismissively. "I'll tell them not to, and the dragons can keep away anyone who is too persistent. They make very effective bodyguards."

To illustrate his point, Toothless growled, giving a threatening glare, and Stormfly raised her tail, poisonous spikes erect.

"I see that," Hiccup noted, still not totally sure about the dragons, but deciding to trust the judgement of his older self until he learned more about the fire-breathing reptiles himself. "Did they understand what you said?"

"Yes. Well, it's complicated. Dragons have much better hearing than we do, and probably some other sort of sensory organ or something. Either way, they can read the sort of overtones to our words when we speak- they can tell if we're afraid, if we're sincere, if we disapprove of something, if they're being complimented, if they're being insulted, if something should be destroyed in a fiery explosion, and so on. But they're intelligent, so after time spent around us and with a bit of effort on our parts, the dragons on Berk understand Norse, some better than others, though they can't speak it."

"Really? Wow," Hiccup said, considering the implications. Dragons, as intelligent as humans? That really changed everything. "How did you find that out if they can't talk to you?"

"That's a longer story-"

"Chief, who's the kid?" One of the villagers came up to the table. Toothless growled and Stormfly raised her tail, and the Viking backed away hurriedly.

"Make the announcement," Astrid suggested gently.

The chief turned to Hiccup. "It looks like we're about to be the center of attention."

"Hey, at least I haven't destroyed anything this time. How bad can it be?" Hiccup bantered, but he braced himself as the chief stood up and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Can I have your attention?" Chief Hiccup called. Most of the Vikings turned to face him, but a few remained oblivious. The Night Fury let out a roar and got their attention.

"Thanks, bud. Now, I'm sure many of you are wondering who this is- and _no,_ he is not my son. The truth is, by the will of the gods, he was brought here through time, from around five years ago." The chief raised his hand to quiet some protests and muttering. "Gothi has already confirmed this, and we won't be affected by anything that changes when he returns to the past, so there is no need to worry. If you have questions, speak to Astrid or my mother. As for who this is," Hiccup held his breath as all eyes landed on him, "this is Hiccup. Essentially me from five years ago, before the Red Death was defeated but soon after Toothless was shot down."

The hall exploded in questions and chatter, and Hiccup winced, but he was mostly grateful there were no actual explosions. Toothless roared, and when he was mostly ignored, he roared again, rearing up and glowing blue in his throat and nostrils and along his spine. Hiccup himself was pretty terrified by the sight.

"Thank you," the Night Fury's rider said once it was silent again. "Again, if you have questions, please ask my wife or my mother, and give him some space." The chief sat back down, and conversation resumed.

"Hey, the people actually listened to you for the most part," Hiccup said. "That's more than I expected with this bunch, and…" He wasn't sure how to continue without insulting himself, and therefore the chief… but if the chief was himself, then wouldn't the chief have said the same thing?

But Chief Hiccup only grinned. "What you need- what I needed- is confidence. Confidence in yourself. That, and good friends to support you." He laid a hand on Toothless' head. "Once I found my best friend here, everything started to get better. I realized that doing the right thing, what needed to be done, was more important than the approval of the tribe, or even my own father. But they all came around in the end. Some needed more convincing than others."

"So… Dad was really okay with having dragons around?" Hiccup asked. It was honestly still confusing to be in some form of Berk and not have his father as Chief, leading and fighting against dragons. Hiccup had thought about the possibility of becoming chief, sure, but mostly dreading it and dismissing the thought as it was in the impossible, distant future. Stoick the Vast was the Chief of Berk, and that was how it was.

"Yeah, though there were certainly a few bumps in the road along the way. He had a Thunderdrum for a while, and then he befriended a Rumblehorn. Skullcrusher's ridden by a former dragon trapper now who's joined our side."

"Dragon trapper?"

"Another long story… suffice it to say there was a long and complicated war between the dragon riders and a few particularly persistent and cunning trappers a few years after the Red Death was defeated. Eret was working under a different madman named Drago Bludvist, and I'll tell you about both of those wars later."

"It's getting late," Astrid said. "We should head home."

The chief nodded in agreement, and Hiccup opened his mouth to ask where he should stay- or if they would rather that he went back to his own time right away- when his stomach growled.

"You haven't eaten yet, have you?" Astrid realized, before rounding on her husband. "Look at you, chattering all evening and not even giving him a chance to eat or rest! He must be starving!"

Chief Hiccup looked sheepish, and Hiccup couldn't help but grin. It was nice to see Astrid yelling at someone else for once- and also nice to see her not so bitter, harsh, and uptight like he knew her. Funny, he had never noticed- that was just Astrid. This Astrid seemed a lot more relaxed, but still as beautiful as-

Hiccup shook himself and went to get food. After a few seconds, he was surrounded by curious Vikings.

"How'd ye get here?"

"Did you even recognize the place?"

"Can I-"

Hiccup heard a low growl, and turned to see Toothless glaring at them. The crowd dispersed, and Toothless relaxed, pupils widening and ear flaps lifted, making him look almost cute. Hiccup blinked in surprise before continuing on his way. He soon reached the line where food was being given out, and he loaded up his plate, but noticed more Vikings starting to close in on him again. His eyes darted back and forth, looking for a way out, and he found one- a Terrible Terror perching hopefully by the food.

"Protect me from these crazy villagers?" Hiccup asked, feeling a little silly, but the greenish-yellow dragon cocked its head and glanced at his plate, then back up at him.

"I'll give you food if we make it to the head table safely," Hiccup relented. The dragon chirped cheerfully and hopped onto his shoulder, little claws digging into his fur vest. Hiccup turned and started to walk back.

"Hiccup, have you-" the Viking stopped as he was screeched at by an angry Terror. A moment later, there were three more miniature dragons glaring and hissing at him. The Viking backed away and the three extra Terrors flew off.

"Nice. You hunt in packs, don't you?" Hiccup remembered, amused. The Terror on his shoulder stuck its chest out proudly for a moment before going back to glaring at any Viking who came too close. Hiccup made it back to the table without further incident.

"I see you made a friend," the chief noticed. Hiccup sat in a seat and offered a chicken leg to the small dragon.

"Thanks," he said, and the Terror chirped happily before grabbing the food and hopping onto the table to eat it. Hiccup quickly ate his own dinner, then, seeing the Terror was still there, he hesitantly reached out a hand and touched its back, then scratched its scales when it didn't protest. The miniature dragon hummed happily for a moment before nudging Hiccup's hand with its head and flying off to join the other Terrors, who were flying out the door to roost for the night.

Hiccup looked at his hand, amazed and a little shocked. _I just… asked a dragon to be my bodyguard, and I_ fed _it, and I_ touched _it… and I liked it._

"Come on, let's go," Chief Hiccup said. "You can stay with us, of course."

Hiccup nodded and stood up, then followed the chief and his family to their house. It was the same house as it was five years ago, but Hiccup could see a few changes had been made, the most noticeable being taller, wider doors, and a raised platform about a story tall next to the house, covered by a roof and closed on three sides, with stairs leading up. As they reached it, the Nadder flew up into it and the Night Fury jumped, aided by a flap of his wings. Another dragon, large and with an owlish face, poked its head out.

"What dragon is that?" Hiccup asked.

"That's Cloudjumper, he's a Stormcutter- the four-winged dragon that Mom lived with for eighteen years. Still does, but here on Berk instead."

Hiccup looked up at the dragon, not sure what to think of the reason he had grown up- and still was growing up- without his mother. But if the dragons were as intelligent and understanding as Chief Hiccup said they were, then Valka must have had some part in the decision to stay away, and hadn't been held captive against her will.

They entered the house, and Hiccup saw again it had been noticeably changed, but was still the same house.

"Um… Do you mind sleeping with some furs down here?" Chief Hiccup asked. "We still only have the two rooms, and the two of us and Mom are staying in those."

"That's fine," Hiccup replied. "I, uh, actually fell asleep down here last night… well, the night I came here." He had technically only been awake for half a day, but his brain was shocked and tired enough that he didn't think he would have a problem falling asleep.

Sure enough, after laying out furs, his mind wandered for only a minute before he drifted off.


	3. Chapter 3

[Older Hiccup's POV]

Hiccup groaned and put his head in his hands as he sat on the bed. "And here I thought that my life would finally settle down and be normal for once."

"Yep," Astrid agreed. "This is pretty not-normal, even by our standards."

"That's fair," he admitted, "Normal for us would be crazy for anyone else. But after all the strange things that have happened to me, I think today takes the prize."

Astrid sat down next to him. "I'd almost forgotten what you were like back then," she said quietly. "What we all were like back then."

"And seeing it from an outsider's perspective," Hiccup continued. "It was… weird. I wasn't just seeing my reflection, I was seeing myself… but how I used to be. I'm finding this pretty crazy, I can't imagine how he's feeling." He laughed a little hysterically. "Oh wait, yes I can! If I imagined myself younger and in his shoes, I'd know _exactly_ how he feels!"

Astrid took his hand. "Calm down. We can figure this out, weird as it is. We always do… There's more, isn't there? It's more than just seeing your younger self."

Hiccup lifted his head to look at her. "I feel like… not like he's my son, because that is beyond weird, but I almost feel like his father, in a way. I feel like it's up to me to teach him, guide him, raise him… and the fate of that other Berk depends on me being able to do it. But it's a fine line- I want to help him, goodness knows I would have loved a bit of help and guidance, but doing that alone, I learned so much, and I changed as a person. Would I be taking that from him if I didn't let him find his own way?" He spread his other hand helplessly. "What if everything changes because I help him too much and he can't rely on himself to fix things because he didn't learn to like I did? What if I don't help enough and he's feeling through the dark like I was, only this time it doesn't turn out okay in the end?"

Astrid thought for a moment before speaking. "I think you know he's really you in here," she tapped his head, "but not in here." She put her hand on his heart. "If you were in his situation- or in your own situation five years ago- think how much good would have come from, say, a letter from your future self. It would bring hope, maybe some information that would make the path easier, but I don't think it would have changed the outcome of anything or made it impossible for you to grow as a person. This is just going a little further." She took his other hand in her own. "Teach him. Guide him. Don't give him all of your life's answers, but teach him to have confidence in himself if that's what you're worried about. He's already a thinker and a problem solver."

Hiccup nodded uncertainly. "Maybe he can stay here for… a week. I'll teach him about dragons and what he needs to know… I guess it's up to him if he wants to befriend them when he goes back."

Astrid shook her head and sighed. "Hiccup, didn't you see him with that Terror at dinner? He might not know it yet, but he needs dragons in his life, just as you do, because he _is_ you. Have some faith in yourself. Remember, you're not leaving Berk in the hands of a stranger. You're leaving the Berk of another universe in your own hands, and look at what came of it when it happened the first time."

Hiccup smiled at her. "You're right… I needed to hear that. Thank you."

He kissed her briefly, then they got ready for bed.

[Younger Hiccup POV]

Hiccup woke up on the first floor of his house. He blinked at the fireplace before remembering he had fallen asleep down here and not made it to his room.

And that weird, strangely vivid dream where he had been a one-legged chief of a dragon-filled village and married to Astrid Hofferson while his mother was alive and living with them… Hiccup shook his head. Where had that come from? He could think about it later, after dragon training.

Hiccup froze as he felt a puff of hot air blow through his hair. He slowly turned his head to see a pair of almost glowing green eyes on the head of a big, black, curious dragon.

"Not a dream, then," Hiccup said, shakily sitting up and edging away. The dragon cocked his head and stepped forward, sniffing at him. Hiccup edged away again, then stopped- Toothless' tail was visible, and like the sketch Hiccup had made recently, it had a single black fin on the right side. But on the left side was a red fin with Berk's symbol stitched into it. That was why the dragon couldn't fly out of that cove- it didn't always have one fin, it needed two to fly, and so someone- probably Chief Hiccup- had made a prosthetic. Hiccup remembered that the chief had said all of that the day before, but it hadn't really sunk it.

The dragon watched as Hiccup stood up and walked to his tail. It was made of light but strong fabric, stretched over a metal frame that opened and closed. But Hiccup saw that it was not just a tailfin- it had a cord running from it, along the Night Fury's side, and connecting to a pedal that was part of a leather and metal harness that the dragon wore around his chest. Toothless only turned his head to watch as Hiccup ran his hand along the harness and clicked the pedal back and forth, observing how the mechanical fin opened and closed, his curiosity overcoming his remaining fear of the mysterious dragon.

"You… are actually incapable of flying without a rider who knows how this thing works," the Viking marveled. "I don't know what flying is like… or how much it means for a dragon… but I know you fly to hunt and to go places. Being limited like this… must be awful."

Toothless nudged him, then very clearly shook his head _no._

"No? I can tell you need someone to work this pedal, so do you mean that flying isn't that important?"

The dragon's eyes widened and he shook his head even more violently.

"No? Flying is very important? I don't get it, it has to be one way or the other."

Toothless nudged him again, then nodded in the direction of the door. After taking a few steps, Hiccup could see the chief outside, talking to a villager.

"Sorry, I still don't understand," apologized Hiccup.

A moment later, Chief Hiccup came back in. "You're awake," he noted.

"Are you usually up early?" asked the younger Viking.

As he walked over to Toothless, the chief nodded. "We go flying every morning for an hour or so. Makes it easier to be patient with stubborn Vikings later."

Hiccup grinned- he could understand that.

"Let's head to the Hall for breakfast," suggested the dragon rider.

"Do you normally do that?" Hiccup wondered, following the chief and the Night Fury out the door.

"My mother cannot cook, and Astrid is… improving. She didn't exactly focus on that particular skill when she was younger."

An image came to Hiccup's mind of his time's Astrid wearing an apron over her spiked skirt, using her two-headed axe to cut bread, and he snorted.

"Oh, and I think you should have this." They paused at the bottom of the stairs, and the chief handed Hiccup the Lightning Bolt of Lognog the Lost, now wrapped in a leather sheath to keep it from cutting anyone by accident. "Just in case you need to get back to your time quickly, and for you, at least, it's guaranteed that nothing will happen if you're cut unless you're in the cave."

"Right…" Hiccup agreed, putting the cord around his neck and tucking the stone under his shirt. "Uh, how long _am_ I staying here?"

"We had a plan worked out, actually." A new voice joined the conversation as Astrid walked up with her Nadder, and Valka with the Stormcutter landed behind them. "You stay a week, we teach you what we know about dragons, leadership, and so on. Then you return to your time and with this extra knowledge, maybe you can do better than we could."

"If you're okay with it, of course," Chief Hiccup added. "We're not holding you here, you're welcome to leave whenever you like. We're just offering our guidance and expertise."

Hiccup didn't have to think too long before he knew his answer. "I'll stay. I'll be back at the same time either way, and I would be a fool to turn down free help and knowledge from my would-be future self."

"Great," Chief Hiccup grinned. "Now I just need to leave someone in charge for the next week."

"I can hold the village together for a week, if my brother Spitelout helps a bit on the Viking side," offered Valka. Seeing the others' confused looks, she hastily added "Not that I don't want to spend time with and teach you, ah, younger Hiccup. It's just… I've done some thinking, and I realized that in your world, you already know Astrid, Gobber, the twins… everyone, and here you're just learning the people they could become if things go a certain way. But you don't know _me._ Getting to know each other goes two ways, you would learn about me while I learn about you. But what about when you return to your world, and find your mother? You would already know her, while you are almost a stranger to her. That would be difficult and unfair to both of you." Valka sighed, then finished. "I suppose I'm just saying that you should get to know your own mother before her counterpart in another universe."

Hiccup glanced at Chief Hiccup, who was nodding thoughtfully. "I guess… that does make sense. Are you alright with it?" He glanced back at Hiccup.

"Sure," Hiccup replied uncertainly. It was a little confusing, but he thought he could see her logic, and he guessed he would probably appreciate it more when he did find his actual mother.

"Good, we'll do that… Toothless?" Now it was Chief Hiccup's turn to sound uncertain, as his Night Fury companion had walked to Valka's side and sat down beside her decisively.

"Are you trying to tell us something, bud?" asked the chief, and Toothless looked at Valka, then pointedly to young Hiccup, then back at Valka, curling his tail around his legs.

"Oh… You're saying that you agree with her, and are going to… stay away, I guess, for the same reason?" Chief Hiccup realized.

Toothless nodded, but after a few moments stood up and returned to his friend's side. Stormfly and Cloudjumper flew off, leaving the rest of them to walk to the Mead Hall. As they walked, Hiccup trailed behind them a little, marveling at what he could see of the bond between the Chief and his dragon. If he wasn't seeing it, he would have said it was impossible- the Night Fury he had shot down probably hated him for taking his flight, even though he had spared his life- though now that it had led to the dragon being trapped in the cove, Hiccup didn't see how he would be safe if he went near the place again… Maybe if he brought food…

The group ate quickly in the Mead Hall, then Hiccup followed them to the kill ring turned dragon racing arena, which was now once again bare, without nets and platforms, but still without chains over the top.

Toothless stopped at the top of the arena, but the others continued down into the stone pit.

"Welcome to dragon training!" Chief Hiccup proclaimed cheerfully. "There's no turning back. The point here it to avoid serious burns, mauling, scars, and pain."

"It just happened the other day for me but I think you might remember just as well," Hiccup noted.

The Chief grinned. "It was a sort of traumatic experience. Anyway, let's get started. The recruit who does best will win the honor of training a Night Fury in front of… well, himself and the Night Fury."

"Awesome. It's going to be me."

"Er…" The two Hiccups looked up to see Snotlout entering the arena, followed by the twins and Fishlegs. "Nope, this class is pretty much just for him," the chief said. "Why are you here?"

"It'll be fascinating and also an honor to see a major part of history happening- Someone teaching their past self!" Fishlegs gushed.

"It probably won't be boring," Ruffnut added with a shrug.

"It's my big chance to see Hiccup mess up for once," said Snotlout.

"Snotlout!" Chief Hiccup glared at his cousin as younger Hiccup's eyes widened.

"It's alright, I'll take it as a compliment." The phrase usually used was 'do something right for once'. Snotlout had just admitted that Hiccup now did no wrong, which was a major change from what Hiccup was used to.

Chief Hiccup looked confused for a moment before his face cleared in realization. "Still, that's not the point he was trying to make, I think."

"We had another idea," said Tuffnut, stepping forward. "It's way too confusing to have two of you with the same name."

"It you're Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third," Ruffnut began, pointing at the chief, "then you," she swung around to point at younger Hiccup, "must be Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third-and-a-half. Now we can tell you apart."

There was a moment of silence before Chief Hiccup spoke. "No offense, guys, but that is ridiculous."

"Who is going to say the whole name?" Hiccup added.

"No, see, we would just call our Hiccup 'Hiccup,' like normal, and we can call you 'Thirdandahalf,' or 'Andahalf,' or just 'Half' if you still think that's too long," Tuffnut proposed.

There was silence for another moment. "Ooh-kay," Hiccup eventually said, "I guess you can call me whatever you want." It would lessen some of the confusion- or possibly make it worse. But where the Thorston twins were concerned, the nickname could be much worse, and it was better to agree now than to refuse and hope they came up with something more sensible.

"Alright, then," Chief Hiccup said after a moment. "Astrid, could you and Stormfly track down a few wild dragons and bring them here?"

Hiccup watched as she whistled, and the Nadder showed up a few seconds later and landed in the ring. Astrid vaulted onto the blue dragon's back and they flew off.

"Wait, you're not going to teach us first?" Hiccup joked as they disappeared.

"I believe in learning on the job," replied Chief Hiccup with an easy grin. "No, we'll teach you some things while we wait."

"So, Thirdandahalf, my young apprentice," began Tuffnut.

"The first thing you must know is to _never tickle a sleeping dragon,"_ Ruffnut finished.

"And don't steal a dragon's food unless you want to become the food," added Tuffnut.

"Ah, that mostly sounds like common sense to me," Hiccup said. "And you don't know the tickling thing from experience, do you?"

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained," Tuffnut shrugged unashamedly.

"It was an honest mistake," Ruffnut defended.

"You know the word 'ventured?'" questioned Fishlegs with a frown.

"The point is much of this is common sense," said Chief Hiccup hastily. "If you think that doing something might get you injured, don't do it."

Snotlout snorted. "Like you follow that rule."

"I mean when you're first meeting a strange dragon, though it is generally a good rule to follow. I follow it more than you and the twins do, at least."

"Why, how exactly do you break that rule?" Hiccup asked, curious.

"He jumps off of his dragon's back high in the air and glides using pieces of leather attached to his arms and legs until Toothless catches him. Oh, and did I mention that said dragon can't actually fly without a rider?" Snotlout cheerfully explained.

"What-"

"It's not as bad as it sounds!" protested Chief Hiccup. The others just looked at him, unconvinced.

"Here, like this," the chief said when he saw Hiccup looking at his suit curiously. After fiddling with a few small straps and levers, the 'wings' were revealed.

"You can really… _fly_ with this?" Hiccup marveled, walking around and examining it.

"With some help. It's pretty great."

Hiccup stepped back again. To be able to fly… without a dragon… maybe he would try it someday.

Just then, Astrid and Stormfly landed, followed by four dragons- a pale grey Gronckle, a purple Nadder, a yellow and green Nightmare, and a yellow Zippleback. They landed at the far end of the ring and eyed the gathered Vikings warily, but without hostility.

"So these are the most common dragons you'll come across," the chief began. "They're also the ones you'll have to deal with soon after you get back, not counting Terrible Terrors, as I think you've got that down already."

Hiccup didn't think he had done anything very impressive with the Terror the night before- just seen that it wanted food and gave it what it wanted in exchange- but he nodded.

"So, first, Gronckles. They look tough on the outside, but if you show you're not a threat they're some of the most easily trusting and loyal dragons."

"Alright," asked Hiccup, eyeing the Gronckle, "What do I do?"

Chief Hiccup opened his mouth to answer, but Astrid laid a hand on his arm and muttered something in his ear. He looked thoughtful for a moment, before nodding and speaking. "What do you think you should do? Trust your instincts. Think like the dragon. It should come naturally- you are me, after all."

That was not what Hiccup had been expecting. Trust his instincts. He looked around and saw all the people and dragons. His future self had done all that- he should be able to approach a Gronckle without being blasted

How should he approach? Slowly made the most sense. Hiccup stepped forward slowly but confidently, wanting to approach the dragon as an equal, not as attacker or prey. He held his hands out to his sides, showing they were empty. The Gronckle eyed him uncertainly, but allowed him to approach until he was a few feet away.

Hiccup remembered that dragons could naturally understand the overtones and emotions of human speech. "Hey there, Gronckle," he began softly. "I'm not here to hurt you. I mean you no harm. Can we be friends?" Hiccup tried to keep his voice steady- it went against everything he had learned to approach a wild dragon without a weapon or at least a shield. Fortunately, this one didn't seem to be very aggressive.

Hiccup took another step closer, but the dragon growled softly, its pupils narrowing into slits. He felt his heart speed up, and he thought quickly. How could he show the dragon he could be trusted? By trusting it first, of course. Easier said than done. He wasn't exactly fireproof.

He held his breath and extended his right hand- his non-dominant hand- towards the dragon's snout. The Gronckle's eyes widened, confused- Hiccup appeared defenseless his hand could be easily bitten or blown off. But it could be a trick. Hiccup glanced at the uncertain dragon, and at his still intact hand. He needed to go a little further, to almost surrender to the Gronckle, and show that he truly had no intention of harming it, giving it the option of leaving or taking his hand without retaliation. Hiccup lowered his head and looked away.

A few seconds later, he felt warm, bumpy scales brush his fingertips, then press into his palm. A slow smile grew on his face as he lifted his head and saw the Gronckle, content and trusting, pupils wide and open. Hiccup slowly moved his other hand and scratched the dragon's know by skin, making it grumble happily.

"Oh come on! We didn't even teach him the hand thing!" Snotlout protested.

Hiccup jumped, and the Gronckle started- he had forgotten the other Vikings were there. He scratched the dragon's scales, calming it. "What hand thing?"

"The thing you did with your hand to show you weren't a threat and to get it to trust you? That's basically what we do when we train a new dragon, and you just figured it out on your own," answered Fishlegs.

"Guys, is it really so surprising?" Chief Hiccup asked. "I mean, I invented the hand thing. It makes sense that he would invent it too." He was grinning proudly.

Hiccup gave the Gronckle one last scratch before backing away and returning to the group.

"Great job," Chief Hiccup said. "I'll give you a minute to recover mentally before you do the next one."

Hiccup thought it was nice to have a teacher who knew exactly how his mind worked.

"In the meantime, I'll tell you a bit more about Gronckles. Actually, Fishlegs, can you take this? You're our expert."

"Okay. Like Hiccup said, Gronckles look tough but are friendly and loyal if you earn their trust. Their speed is lower than that of most dragons, but they're tough and strong. They can live off of both stones and meat, but generally prefer both. Once they've reached their shot limit, they can reload by eating stones. Also, there's a combination of stones and metal that can be eaten by Gronckles to make a metal called Gronckle iron, which is really light and strong. They are also immune to dragon root."

Hiccup wondered if he should be taking notes, but decided against it. A minute later, the Gronckle expert was finished, and it was time to move on to the Deadly Nadder.

"Nadders aren't quite as friendly as Gronckles if you don't know them well," Chief Hiccup began. "They're also usually vain. There are a few other differences as well, so keep that in mind."

Either Chief Hiccup had actually been serious about the learning-on-the-job thing, or everyone was curious to see how well he would do with minimal instruction. Hiccup had only found out that dragons weren't evil the day before. This was probably entertaining for them, whether he 'messed up for once' or not.

Hiccup shook the thoughts away and approached the Nadder. The purple dragon eyed him warily much as the Gronckle had- only it already knew that he hadn't harmed the grey dragon, and so wasn't as hostile as it could have been.

Hiccup slowly walked forward, staying in front of the Nadder. It allowed him to approach, but not as close as the Gronckle had before it gave a warning squawk.

"Hey, I'm not going to hurt you," said Hiccup. "Look at me, do you think I could if I tried?"

The dragon turned its head, evaluating him with one eye. Hiccup took a step to the side to get back in front of its nose, and the Nadder gave another angry squawk, raising its tail in warning.

"Okay, you don't want me to come closer. I get it," the Viking said. What was wrong with the Nadder? It didn't seem like he could get in front of it to do 'the hand thing.'

Hiccup stood for a moment, watching. The Nadder lowered its tail a little and turned its head again to look at him.

"Wait a minute…" Hiccup realized. It kept turning it's head to look at him once he had gotten a certain distance from it. With the angle of it's eyes on the side of its head, not the front, it could see further to the side and behind, but there was a spot that probably reached for several feet in front of its snout where it was unable to see.

"You have a blind spot," Hiccup realized. He edged to the side again- but this time away from the head. He started walking towards the dragon, and it raised its tail a little but didn't attack.

"See, everything's alright." Nadders were vain, so they probably liked compliments. "Your purple scales are very nice and, er, magnificent." He had no idea if the dragon was a male or female, so he tried to keep the compliments gender-neutral.

Once Hiccup was close to the Nadder's head, he raised his right hand again and turned his own head to face the ground. Would this still work if the dragon was facing away from him?

After a few seconds, Hiccup felt smooth scales, and he lifted his head to see that the Nadder had turned to press its snout into his palm. He grinned and scratched under the dragon's chin with his other hand.

"Very nice," Chief Hiccup said. The Nadder moved away and started chirping- talking?- to the Gronckle while Hiccup walked back to the group. "Normally, we approach Nadders on the tail side, and smooth down the spikes to calm them and show we're not a threat, but you did pretty well on your own. We'll tell you more about Nadders later, I think the Zippleback and the Nightmare won't hang around for much longer if we ignore them."

Hiccup nodded and walked towards the Zippleback, as he was still a little wary of Nightmares, the most deadly and feared dragon that regularly attacked the village aside from Night Furies.

The two heads turned to look at him as he slowly approached, holding his hands out to show they were empty. He was glad he already had the experience of training the Gronckle and Nadder under his belt, as he doubted he could calmly walk towards a two-headed dragon otherwise. Fortunately, the dragon, having seen and spoken to the others, was willing to let him approach without threatening him, but once he got close, the two heads did go on either side of him, making it difficult for him to attack if he had wanted to. He stood still for a few seconds before lifting both of his hands, in case the two heads got upset with unequal treatment. He looked at the ground, and after a moment, both of his hands were feeling smooth scales.

"Good, treat them both the same," Chief Hiccup praised. "Go ahead and do the Nightmare if you're ready."

Hiccup nodded and stepped towards the last dragon. It lit its back in warning, and Hiccup's heart sped up, but he just stopped and waited. The flames went out after a few seconds and he walked forward again. He approached the dragon slowly, but deliberately and respectfully. The Nightmare watched, motionless. Hiccup put his hand forward over the Nightmare's snout, and was about to turn his head but decided against it. The dragon was big and fierce, and surely knew that Hiccup couldn't hurt it if he tried. It seemed more appropriate to show respect than blind trust. So Hiccup bowed his head a little, but kept eye contact with the dragon. After a few heart-stopping seconds, the Nightmare lifted its head the last few inches to touch his hand.

"Thank you," said Hiccup, smiling. The Nightmare snorted softly and backed away, crawling to the other dragons, who had been joined by Toothless and Stormfly.

"Well done," the chief said. "Now some of them might wish to take human partners- that's probably what they're talking about now."

Sure enough, the dragons were chirping, warbling, and growling at each other, looking and sniffing at Stormfly's saddle and Toothless' tail.

"Can you tell if they're male or female?" Hiccup wondered.

"Yeah, but it's more of an experience thing. You kind of just get a feel for it- or one day they show up with hatchlings, and then you can be pretty confident," answered the chief. "The Gronckle and Nightmare are males, and the Nadder and Zippleback are females."

They watched the dragons for another few minutes before leaving the arena, Toothless and Stormfly following, and the other dragons flew off.

They went to the Mead Hall, where the dragon manual was pulled out. The other dragon riders wandered off while Fishlegs and the chief helped explain and added details as Hiccup studied. Hiccup was amazed by how much thicker and more detailed this version was, containing more than the various ways each dragon could painfully kill you and 'kill on sight'. There were also pages and pages of dragons that Hiccup had never heard of or seen in the manual when he had flipped through it in his time.

They eventually ate lunch, and Fishlegs' Gronckle, Meatlug, showed up.

"Now," Chief Hiccup said, closing the book, "Let me show you a few things that I learned when I was working with Toothless that helped me in the ring."

He gestured to Meatlug, and the dragon walked over. "First," he began, "dragons despise eels. That's how I got Barf and Belch to back into his cage, and the looks on everyone's faces was pretty great. But I'm not going to demonstrate, because that would be mean." He tapped his chin for a moment, thoughtful. "But maybe you could do it once you return… it would gain their respect without hurting them, once Barf and Belch tell the others. Just don't leave the eel in their cage like I did."

Hiccup agreed that that would be a little excessive, but he knew that the chief just hadn't known much about dragons at the time and was defending himself, and the Zippleback had apparently forgiven him.

"Everything else I learned is a bit kinder. First, dragon nip." The chief pulled a handful of grass out of one of Toothless' saddlebags. Meatlug's pupils widened and she sniffed eagerly as he walked towards her.

"I thought Gronckles were immune to dragon nip," said Hiccup, confused.

Fishlegs shook his head. "Dragon root, not dragon nip. Some hunters coat their arrows in dragon root, and when it gets in their system the dragons lose control of their muscles and collapse or plummet to the ground."

"Dragon nip is like catnip, but for dragons. You have to hold in in front of their nose… or crash into a field of it." Chief Hiccup demonstrated, rubbing the plant on Meatlug's nose, and the Gronckle rolled over, sniffing happily in a daze.

"Wow." Hiccup was not used to dragons acting that way, and would never have guessed that there was a plant that could render them so docile.

"Next… well, we're going to need another dragon for demonstration," the chief realized. "This next trick also kind of puts them out for a bit."

The Night Fury behind him warbled and nudged him.

"Are you volunteering? I guess it wouldn't hurt," decided Chief Hiccup. He stepped over, and Toothless stood still. "So you scratch them a certain way- first behind their head, then under their jaw, close to their neck. Like this." Toothless collapsed, purring contentedly.

"It's a good thing nobody who wanted to kill dragons ever figured this out," noted Hiccup with a shiver, and the chief and Fishlegs nodded in agreement.

"You can try that later, most dragons wouldn't mind, though their riders might. Lastly, the most entertaining trick. I used it on the Terrible Terror. First, you need a reflective surface- a hammer, a mirror, the metal center of a shield, and sunlight."

Hiccup followed the chief to the entrance of the Hall, where a ray of light shone down to the floor. Chief Hiccup grabbed a shield and held it in the light at an angle so a small dot of light was reflected onto the ground in the shadowed part of the hall.

"Wait for it…" he muttered. A moment later, a Terrible Terror flew down to investigate.

"Now watch this." The shield was tilted, the spot of light moved, and the dragon scuttled after it. The shield moved again, and the Terror continued to chase the light around, pouncing whenever the light held still. Hiccup snickered to himself as the small dragon leapt at it, trying to catch it, but failing and being confused.

"Here, you try." The shield was passed to Hiccup, and he knelt and played with the light for a few minutes while the chief went and got a fish from a nearby pile.

"Once she realizes, she'll be a little miffed you made her do something as undignified as chasing a light for several minutes, so give her the fish and she'll forgive you," he explained when he returned. "Other dragons have bigger egos, so they might be annoyed for longer, but I'm pretty sure they secretly enjoy it."

A cloud passed over the sun and the light was gone. The Terror looked around for a moment before seeing the shield. She let out a small puff of flame to show her displeasure with the situation. Hiccup held back a smile mostly successfully as he offered the fish. The dragon took the fish and cheerfully forgave.

Hiccup watched the dragon for a minute, thinking. He was grateful to know these things, it would make dragon training easier and learning it on his own wasn't left to chance when he returned. But could it help him actually change things?

"I'm glad I know all this now," Hiccup began, "but can I change what happens with it? I need a plan when I get back, to see if there's a way to convince everyone that dragons aren't what they think they are _before_ they go on a suicide mission against the Red Death."

Chief Hiccup hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "You're right. We might need to gather more people for this, so we will discuss it and come up with a plan tonight."

 **A/N: Thanks for reading! Leave a review if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, etc.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I'm back! As I am no longer in a foreign country, I'll try to make updates more regular.**

Hiccup spent most of the rest of the day wandering the village, mostly looking at the new additions and inventions for ideas. When he returned to his own time and universe, he wanted to bring as much as he could with him, at least with regards to knowledge and ideas. Hopefully he could gain some respect as this universe's Hiccup had and he would be able to share it.

After dinner in the Mead Hall, Hiccup, Gobber, and all the Vikings who had been in the Chief's dragon training class- the last class before it switched from fighting to actual training- gathered in the Chief's home.

They sat around a table, with the older Hiccup at the head and Astrid to his right, while the young Hiccup was on his left. The rest of the Vikings also sat around the table, and Toothless stretched out by the fire nearby- this would probably involve his other-universe self, and so it was a good idea to hang around and listen in case they needed any dragon input.

It was an odd feeling for Hiccup, being seated at the table in such a high position. He had sat in in a couple of meetings that his father had held, as he needed to learn how to be chief someday, but he was usually ignored. Here, the meeting was about him, and his opinion would be very important.

Chief Hiccup called for everyone's attention, and the twins stopped arguing with Snotlout and Fishlegs stopped discussing something with Gobber while Hiccup pulled out his sketchbook- he had brought it with him from his time and it now had drawings of different mechanisms he had seen and improvements to inventions he had already thought of. Now, he would use it to take notes and plan his future- that is, the past.

"Thank you," began the chief. "You know why you're here, but I called you specifically because I know you'll have opinions, and your other selves are the people Hiccup here-"

"Thirdandahalf," Ruffnut interrupted.

The chief gave her a look. "Anyway, you're going to be the people he interacts with the most in the beginning, and so your thoughts will be useful. Let's start at the beginning- Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Fishlegs, Hiccup- don't, Tuff- as far as you know, Hiccup will wake up in his house, from where he left in the first place, right?"

Hiccup and the twins nodded, while Fishlegs added "If he doesn't, he'll end up in the cave, and he should hopefully be able to sneak back to the village without drawing attention."

"I'm pretty good at not drawing attention, unless I destroy half the village," Hiccup noted. Then he frowned. "I hope I wake up in time, though- I don't know what time I actually got here, but I wasn't out of that cave until past noon."

"Well, you were asleep when you were brought here. Plus you already had a stressful day, maybe you would have slept a little late normally and the travel made it worse," Fishlegs speculated. "Or maybe there is some other time factor involved…"

"Just get some extra sleep the night before you return," Astrid suggested. "Next?"

"Right," nodded Chief Hiccup, "So the morning you get back, you'll be facing the Nadder in the ring- Stormfly. There will be walls and barriers set up, and the goal will be to attack- which you won't do, of course."

Hiccup shook his head violently in agreement. Even if he were capable of attacking a Nadder without being seriously injured, he no longer had any desire to do so, having seen a whole new side to dragons and having begun the training of a Nadder already.

"Maybe then you should try training her," Fishlegs suggested.

"No, you should let all of the dragons out of the cage at once. That'll get their attention," Tuffnut disagreed.

"Neither of those is a good idea with the possibility of him being exhausted that day," said the chief flatly. "Besides, he doesn't have the backup of a protective Night Fury yet if things go wrong."

"I agree," put in Hiccup. "How about I spend the first day back in training just observing and staying alive?"

A few- namely Snotlout and the twins- thought the idea sounded boring, but the chief, Astrid, Fishlegs, and Gobber agreed it was the way to go for the time being.

"But after that, I want to change things." Hiccup had done some thinking during the afternoon before the meeting. "If I can… I want to get dragons introduced to the village peacefully, without going blindly after this giant queen. Some more back up and organization would be helpful, because from what I heard, all of you winning was a long shot. Unless I'm fated to win or however it works, the chances of surviving this time around aren't great."

The chief nodded. "Good, now we have a goal. I suggest for the basic plan first befriending your Toothless and getting him back in the air, then talking to… well, everyone in this room to back you up," he gestured towards the others seated around the table.

"But make sure to be winning in dragon training, and gain their respect," advised Astrid. Then she frowned. "My other self may be a little difficult, though."

Hiccup looked down at his sketchbook. With the chief's help, he had jotted down a basic timeline of the older Hiccup's experiences from the Nadder training to the defeat of the Red Death. "I think the problem is I don't have much time, if Dad returns when he does here and the fight against the Nightmare- I mean Hookfang- is scheduled normally," he thought aloud. "The day after you got Toothless to trust you- the day before you stayed up making the first tail fin- everyone was on their own for exercise, right?" Chief Hiccup confirmed it and the younger Viking continued. "Gobber, where were you during that time?"

The smith chuckled. "It was years ago, laddie, I can't be sure. Somewhere besides the smithy, I believe, if that's what ye mean- I don't usually hang around when Stoick has left on a voyage with me behind to train recruits, and no weapons to fix."

Hiccup nodded. "Okay, good. I was thinking that if I could take a look at Toothless' tail and saddle here, now, and take his measurements there, later, then I could start early, during the day, and in the morning hopefully have the whole thing done. I'll probably need to fix a few things, but at least I won't have to waste time figuring out that I need a pedal to control the tail." He tapped further down his timeline. "We can get up in the air earlier, and because I already know they will be open to the idea, I'll slowly introduce the idea of befriending dragons to your other selves, as long as the popularity thing happens like you say it will…" Hiccup was still a little doubtful of that part, but knew in his head logically that if he succeeded in dragon training and rose to the top then it would happen, "And then I'll introduce Toothless and train the others in the ring, hopefully all before dad and the other villagers get back. That should get me some insurance during the fight with Hookfang and afterwards, if the chief still gets mad… maybe he can be reasoned with if there are enough of us?" Hiccup was a little unsure about that part as well.

"Sounds like a good plan," said Gobber. "Simple. Leaves room to improvise."

"You might need to do a bit of improvising," Chief Hiccup agreed.

"The chicken would approve," said Tuffnut decisively.

Hiccup blinked, confused, while Astrid shared her opinion. "I'm not sure my younger self won't give you a hard time. I wasn't convinced until Hiccup and Toothless kidnapped me, and this plan won't involve the truth whacking me in the head like that. I might be too stubborn and angry to listen."

"Um…" Hiccup wasn't exactly successful when it came to anything dealing with Astrid- at least in his world so far- and so had no idea what to do.

The others were quiet, thinking.

After a moment, Snotlout had a suggestion. "You could push her off a cliff, and Hookfang and I could-"

"No," Astrid stopped him. "Not happening. It wouldn't make a difference for you anyway, you're staying here."

"Are you saying that I only think about myself?" asked Snotlout, seemingly offended. "I can't look out for my younger self in a different universe? I just think that maybe it could work-"

"No," Chief Hiccup joined his wife in shooting down the idea. "Even if Astrid was somehow pushed off a cliff, if you were obviously waiting to catch her, she would realize you were part of the plan… and do you really want to be stuck on a dragon with an angry Astrid?"

Snotlout gulped as the warrior woman casually twirled her axe while glaring at him. "Fine, I'll come up with something else…"

A small smile grew on Hiccup's face when he realized that Snotlout seemed to have forgotten that they were not actually talking about him, but his alternate self. He looked forward to being respected by the other Vikings like this Hiccup was.

Astrid furrowed her brow in thought for a moment before she had an idea of her own. "Hiccup… Younger Hiccup, that is, would you be willing to tell everyone, or at least me, that you had been to the future?"

"Uh… Maybe. I would be more likely to tell you than the others, I guess. Whether you believed me or not, you would be the least likely to accidentally or purposefully spread it around the village," Hiccup replied hesitantly. "Why?"

"If you can't get her to listen to you, then maybe I can. I'll write a letter and send it back with you. I think she'll pay attention to something supposedly written by her future self, and if she decides it's genuine… she might listen. I know what to say to make sure she believes it, and what to say to convince her to look at things differently."

Hiccup thought about that for a moment. "Yeah, I think that might work." The chief also nodded in agreement.

"Hey, can I write a letter to self?" Fishlegs asked.

"And me!" added the twins in unison. "To prank ourselves…" Ruffnut continued, trailing off as she and her brother got identical evil grins, "Would be the greatest thing we ever do," Tuffnut finished.

"Why don't we all do it?" Gobber suggested.

Everyone turned to the chief, who turned to Hiccup.

"Uh, sure," agreed Hiccup.

"Alright. When you write, make sure to include something, some fact or secret, that only you would know, so your past selves can be sure that it really is you writing," ordered the chief. "Don't include anything that would make it more difficult for Hiccup, and stick to the truth… don't over exaggerate anything."

The twins groaned but everyone agreed.

"Now, in the actual fight against the Red Death… I'm not sure what to tell you. It depends on what lengths the village is willing to go to. Best of luck, trust your dragon, and pray to the gods," summed up the chief.

"Oh… okay…" Hiccup said.

Astrid rolled her eyes. "You'll be fine. It was such a long shot, you're probably fated to defeat her and end the war. Just be confident… but not too confident."

Hiccup glanced at Snotlout. "Right."

"Okay then!" Chief Hiccup said. "Unless anyone has any other ideas, I think we're done here."

The Vikings around the table stood up and left, some with friendly bickering, while the Night Fury yawned and stretched like a cat before getting to his feet. He rubbed against Chief Hiccup, who scratched his scales, then the black dragon followed the others out the door.

Hiccup watched them go, then pulled out the furs he had used the night before and set them up in front of the fire, where Toothless had been only minutes before.

As the other lights and torches went out, leaving the flickering fire as the only source of light and heat, Hiccup thought back on the events of the day and how his future was going to change. One thing was for certain: he would try his hardest to end the centuries-old war and make peace with the dragons. His eyes had been opened, and there was no way he could go back to how things were. Now he knew that dragons were intelligent creatures with their own personalities and opinions, caring for each other and even humans and Vikings they were close to. It was an entire side of them that his people had never seen because of their tendency to attack first and ask questions later, among other things.

Things would change for Hiccup too, he knew. Apparently he was a natural when it came to understanding dragons, and so would be looked to as a leader once the village accepted them. And he had also seen how Toothless acted with Chief Hiccup, and vice versa. Though Hiccup hadn't spent much time interacting with the dragon himself, he could see that their friendship and trust ran deep- deeper than the relationship between a person and a beloved pet, even deeper than most friendships he had seen, equal to and maybe surpassing those he had seen between two people who had been through battles together and were willing to trust the other with their life at a moment's notice.

Hiccup doubted he would be able to tell that much if it wasn't his own future self he was looking at. But the fact remained that it could and probably would happen unless Hiccup somehow made a mistake that his other self hadn't. It sort of scared him, knowing that soon he would have a friend like that, and a friend that he would do anything for in return, but at the same time it gave him hope.

Seeing the other Hiccup doing all he was doing was pretty incredible. He had been so understanding and patient, willing to guide, teach, and explain things to the younger Hiccup. Of course, Hiccup couldn't think of anyone who wouldn't help and guide their younger selves if given the opportunity, but it was still nice. However, the twins were right- having two Hiccups was incredibly confusing. With their nickname for him- Thirdandahalf, Andahalf, Half, whichever- some of the confusion was cleared up, but it was still disorienting in Hiccup's own head to think of himself and the other. Maybe if he gave the older Hiccup a nickname of his own, just to use in his thoughts? If he called the chief by name aloud, it would be pretty obvious who he was speaking to, as he wouldn't call his own name.

Hiccup thought about his older self. It felt like he knew him better than anyone else, yet he was a complete stranger. The strange parts had slowly began to fade as Hiccup got to know the other, as the chief taught him, guided him, and shared his knowledge. He was like a leader, showing Hiccup the way he needed to go.

A word came to mind as Hiccup cast around his thoughts- vinr. It meant leader, patron, and friend, all of which were things that Chief Hiccup was or could be to Hiccup. That was what Hiccup would call him.

His mental conundrum solved for now, Hiccup fell asleep.

"Today," announced Chief Hiccup- or Vinr as Hiccup was calling him in his mind to keep things straight- "You're going to fly on a dragon."

"What, already? I guess we do only have a week," Hiccup conceded.

"You're not going to fly a dragon yourself, you'll ride with someone else," Vinr assured him. "It's different, but it'll get you used to the idea of flight." The local Night Fury came up and rested his chin on top of his rider's head. "I don't think this will make much of a difference in your relationship with your Toothless, your first solo flight will still be with him, and flying with him is unique, because it's a team effort. What we're doing today should just speed up the process, give you a better understanding of flying and some new ideas, and buy you more time," he summed up.

"Okay, I think I get it," said Hiccup. He looked around the ring at the assembled dragons and riders- so far only the dragons that had once been fought in the ring and their opponents-turned-riders, along with the Nadder and Nightmare he had sort of trained the day before.

"First, you're just going to watch. We're going to do a simple training exercise- fly around the ring five times, spiraling upward, then diving down towards the ring. The dragon will do a barrel roll, and when we come out, the dragon will blast this target-" Vinr gestured to an upright stone slab that must have been lifted into the ring by one or more of the dragons- "And the rider will hit or throw their weapon at this other target." He nodded towards a solid-looking upright log. "Once a dragon and rider team does it three times in a row successfully, they're done."

After looking around for a moment, Hiccup stepped over to a spot in the ring where he was less likely to be accidentally fried, skewered, chopped, or crushed. Toothless growled something to the wild dragons- the Nadder and the Nightmare- and they came to stand near Hiccup.

"Why are these two here?" Hiccup wondered.

"The other two I saw looking around for prospective riders. I think these two want to see a bit more before they make a decision…?" Vinr trailed off, glancing at his dragon, who nodded in confirmation. "Yeah. Plus, I think they like you."

"Um, they know I won't be here much longer, right?" Hiccup checked.

"Toothless warned them not to get too attached," the chief guessed, and the Night Fury again nodded.

Hiccup was full of questions now he saw exactly how well some dragons understood Norse, but he held them as he could see the others were impatient to start. The dragons that had riders took off and landed again around the ring. Hiccup realized it would be a better place to watch from, so he hurried up and the wild dragons followed.

Toothless and Vinr remained in the air. Once everyone was settled, they started circling upwards. Hiccup watched, seeing how the Night Fury tucked his legs, how he flapped his wings and glided, how he used his secondary wings with his main wings, and possibly most importantly, how he used his tail and how the artificial fin was used with it.

He watched as Toothless tucked his wings and went into a dive, and as the fin was adjusted. The dragon fell for a few seconds, and Hiccup couldn't help jumping a little when he heard the whistle that meant a Night Fury was in a dive, about to release a deadly blast of fire. The pair suddenly rolled over, then a small shot of blue flame hit the rock and a slice appeared in the wooden pillar as they swooped past, then began to circle upwards again.

Hiccup watched as they repeated the exercise twice more, then landed.

"Easy," proclaimed Snotlout. "Me and Hookfang will go next."

"Hookfang and I," Fishlegs corrected.

"No, Hookfang is my dragon."

Fishlegs sighed and the Nightmare took off with his rider.

As they circled upwards, Hiccup kept watching, noticing the differences between the Fury and the Nightmare. Snotlout and his dragon made larger circles around the ring, probably because Hookfang was larger than Toothless and less agile in the air. They dove downwards, not as quickly as the previous pair, did a roll, then pulled up to blast fire at the rock and swing past the wood post so Snotlout could swipe at it with his axe. They circled upwards and did it again, only Snotlout tried to throw his axe at the target and missed.

"Start over," Vinr called. Snotlout grumbled but did it three more times successfully.

Fishlegs went next with Meatlug. It was pretty different from the first two, Hiccup noticed, because Gronckles weren't especially fast or agile. They slowly circled upwards, then sort of plummeted downwards, rolled over, then almost completely stopped in order to blast the stone and whack the pillar.

Hiccup glanced at the wild dragons as the pair slowly circled upwards again. The Nadder seemed to be losing interest, turning her head to preen and clean her scales.

"Can I try something?" asked Hiccup, remembering the lessons he had learned the day before. He hadn't had the chance to try the scratching trick yet.

The Nadder eyed him, then chirped what sounded like an affirmative. Hiccup wasn't totally sure, so he just scratched behind her head spines for a moment. When she didn't protest, he moved his hand, scratching under the back of her jaw. The Nadder let out a surprised trill and collapsed, purring.

The Nightmare eyed the two of them, an unsure expression on his face, before snorting and turning back to Fishlegs and Meatlug, who were finishing their third round.

The twins and their Zippleback went next, messing up on their third round and having to do it over again.

Finally, Astrid and Stormfly took their turn, flying, diving, spinning, and shooting with grace and precision. Astrid threw her axe at the post while her dragon flamed at the rock, then they swung around so Astrid could grab the weapon. They repeated it twice more without any problems.

"Alright, good job, everyone," the chief called. "Astrid, do you mind if Hiccup rides with you?"

"That's fine," she replied. Hiccup's eyes widened for a moment. She was the most logical choice- no one in their right mind would have someone do their first dragon ride with Snotlout or the twins, and the dragon he would be riding later was absolutely nothing like a Gronckle, and he was trying to avoid spending too much time with this Toothless. But still, he was going to ride a dragon with Astrid Hofferson- well, Haddock. She was married. To his future self. Right.

Hiccup thought he heard a sort of snicker, he glanced around and saw that Toothless was very determinedly not looking at him. Great.

He made his way over to Stormfly, who sniffed at him before giving an approving chirp. She knelt down so Hiccup could climb up behind Astrid more easily.

"Hold on with your legs, and you can hold on to the saddle if you need to," she advised. Hiccup just nodded, not trusting himself to speak yet for a few different reasons. He already felt higher just being on Stormfly's back.

The Nadder raised her wings and ran a couple of steps forward before crouching and flapping downwards. Hiccup grabbed at the saddle as the suddenly rose into the air. After a few seconds he got used to the motion and slowly let go, looking around. They were circling around the ring as Toothless and the chief joined them, followed by the two wild dragons.

Everything looked different from the air, he could see further, but instead of standing on some high peak or hill, there was only the dragon between him and the ground. It was strange but felt freeing, and he suspected it would be even more so once he was the one directing the dragon.

"Ready to go higher?" Astrid asked.

"Sure," replied Hiccup. He noticed that she hadn't asked if he was alright, just if he wanted to go higher- probably because he was the younger version of the chief, who was obviously at home in the air. He and Toothless were casually looping and rolling as they flew around them.

Hiccup grabbed the saddle for only a moment to steady himself as they rose. Then they turned and flew inland over the forest, Hiccup's eyes roaming over the trees, the mountains, and the sea.

"This is incredible," Hiccup said.

"It's pretty amazing," Astrid agreed. Hiccup kept looking at the view for another minute before she spoke again. "If you are having trouble with my younger self… It would probably be better if you asked instead of kidnapping me like this Hiccup and Toothless did, but as a hint… a Night Fury ride at sunset with the northern lights convinced me pretty well that dragons could be a good thing."

Hiccup gaped for a moment before closing his mouth, having no idea how to respond to that. "Thanks… for the tip?" He tried uncertainly.

He went red when he thought he saw Astrid smiling as she turned to face forward and Stormfly chortled. He didn't think she was trying to trick or prank him, he was sure she was telling the truth, but he was also pretty sure they were laughing at him and his obvious crush on the younger Astrid. Or maybe it wasn't that obvious and they just knew because this Astrid was married to his older counterpart. At least he hoped so. Hiccup got the feeling that that wasn't the case, but at least he wasn't as obvious as Snotlout!

Hiccup remembered that the point of flying was to get him used to it to save time later, so he stopped admiring the view and started paying attention to the dragon- how it felt to rise, fall, and turn, and how she used her wings and tail. He'd have to do more once he was the one telling the dragon where to go.

They flew for a few more minutes, even doing a loop once, and Hiccup was sure to hold on with both his hands and legs, though Vinr and Astrid only held on with their legs. He was pretty sure they were showing off a little.

They landed again a little later. "Now," Vinr said once Hiccup had slid down from Stormfly and given her a pat on the nose, "You're going to see what it is like to fly on a dragon that hasn't been trained to carry a rider before."

Hiccup blinked. "What?"

Vinr turned to Toothless, who warbled and growled to the two wild dragons. The Nadder stepped back and flapped her wings uncertainly, but the Nightmare seemed to think for a moment before stepping forward and growling softly.

"He has agreed to carry the two of us… Right, bud?" Toothless nodded and his rider continued. "We'll ride him for a few minutes, you'll get used to riding an untrained dragon, and he'll get used to the idea of carrying a rider. Two birds, one stone."

Hiccup was a little unsure about the idea, but knew it was better to learn something from it now than waste time later when he needed to get Toothless flying again as quickly as possible.

"Alright. Do we use a saddle?"

"Usually his actual rider will get that for him. We're just going to use rope- actually, I'll hold on to his horns, you'll use the rope. It's all Snotlout had when we went to battle the Red Death, so you should be fine."

Toothless rumbled something to the Nightmare, who stood still while the rope was tied onto his neck and as Vinr and Hiccup slowly got on. Hiccup saw how the more experienced dragon rider held the horns lightly, enough that he would be able to hold on and tell the dragon where he wanted to go but not so much that the dragon's head was held in place and he panicked.

"Go on up if you're ready," the chief said encouragingly while gently nudging the Nightmare's neck with his good foot. The yellow and green dragon reared up and flapped his wings, slowly rising into the air. Hiccup grabbed at the rope as the Nightmare's head and neck wobbled back and forth. They climbed unsteadily for a minute before leveling out.

"We're going to try turning," Vinr warned. Hiccup peered around him to watch as he gently pushed at the horns to turn the dragon's head to the right, in more of a suggestion than an order. The Nightmare turned first his head, then the rest of his body followed.

"It's not much different than riding a trained dragon as long as they're willing to listen and work with you," said Vinr. "The dragon already knows how to fly, it just has to learn to get used to more weight on its neck and to following directions. Most of that part depends on the dragon itself- some are pretty eager-to-please, and others are stubborn and don't see why they should listen to the human they're graciously giving a ride to."

Hiccup nodded and his teacher continued. "This one is curious, I think, so he's pretty willing to do what we ask for now. Once he's found a rider for himself, they can work on more advanced training."

It made sense to Hiccup- a completely new rider on a dragon entirely unused to carrying people sounded like a recipe for disaster, especially with the Viking tendency to charge first and think later.

The chief gently guided the dragon back to the ground. "For the dragons that are open to suggestion, it usually isn't a big deal when they're ridden the first time as the rider uses common sense. Some of the stubborn ones you can usually get to listen to you by standing up to them, being firm and persistent. Not to subjugate them or scare them into obedience- just give them a reason to respect you," Vinr continued as they descended and touched down.

"Why would they listen to puny humans like us when they can fly and breathe fire?" Hiccup added sarcastically.

"Exactly," said the chief with a grin. He gave Hiccup a hand sliding down from the Nightmare. "Some types of dragons typically act one way or another, as I'm sure you can guess. Here, why don't you get him a fish from that barrel there?"

Hiccup fetched the fish and tossed it to the dragon, who snapped it out of the air cheerfully before flying off, the purple Nadder close behind, chattering at him.

"So, for the rest of the day," Vinr said once the two wild dragons had gone, "you can keep studying, note down anything you might forget, and practice your skills charming the local dragon population. Even with putting my mother and uncle in charge, there are a few things I should probably take care of myself… If you need the dragon manual, track down Fishlegs, I think he has it."

Hiccup decided the best thing to do at the moment was to record what he had learned- most of it was indeed common sense or could be reasoned through with logic and basic dragon psychology, but there were a couple of things he wanted to be sure to remember. Vinr flew off on Toothless, and Hiccup took a seat on one of the benches around the ring as he pulled out his note and sketchbook.

 **A/N: Thanks for reading! Favorites, follows, reviews etc are appreciated and make my day :)**

 **Also, I have another story idea that I plan on starting tomorrow as I am now home again- I saw Httyd before I read the books, and I've only read the first four. I kinda liked the idea behind the books, but not so much the Toothless in the books. I'm going to try writing the book with some elements of the movie added in, namely one thing in particular - what if Hiccup did not pick up a small, self-centered, whiny, toothless, green baby Common or Garden dragon, but a small, loyal, curious, adorable, toothless baby Night Fury? Beginning would be pretty similar to canon, with a few added characters and ideas, but will diverge from canon more so as the story goes on. Let me know if there are any characters from the movie you would like to see in particular!**


	5. Chapter 5

Unfortunately, Hiccup was only able to think for a minute before he was approached by more curious Vikings, no longer deterred by the presence of Toothless and the Chief.

Hiccup glanced around uncertainly. He had no idea how to react. Back in his time, he had been mostly ignored and left alone, or at least looked down upon. Surely these people remembered that- he could recognize most of them- but in this time, the Chief was clearly looked up to and revered. Hiccup didn't know how they saw him.

"Um, hey," greeted Hiccup when he was approached by three villagers. "Can I help you?"

Brigid- a motherly woman who baked good bread, if he remembered correctly- spoke for them. "We just want to apologize for how we treated you in the past, dear."

Hiccup had not been expecting that. He didn't remember any of the three doing anything in particular. "Ah, it's alright. No hard feelings."

"Thank you. Everything you've done is incredible."

"Thanks, but I haven't actually done any of it yet."

"No, but you will do great things," she said.

"Saved my life once," said one of the others, a farmer Hiccup didn't know by name. Hiccup wasn't sure how to respond to that, but he didn't have to, as the third villager, a fisherman, asked a question.

"Are you going to stay here forever?"

Hiccup realized that Vinr must not have told the others when he was going back. "No, I'm returning at the end of the week, and there I'm going to try and make peace before we take down the Red Death. That's why the Chief is training me."

The trio thanked him and walked back to the village, probably to spread the word. Hiccup took a deep breath and let it out. That hadn't been so bad. But he did find a quieter place to study.

That evening, Hiccup once again had his sketchbook out and ready. Vinr was going to teach him about Toothless' tail.

"Alright, pay attention, but if you miss anything I'm sure you can figure out, and you'll probably make improvements either way. So, starting with the fin itself…"

Toothless held still as his rider lifted his tail. "This version has metal rods and a thin, light fabric. I used leather first. I also have a few others, made of different materials, including Gronckle Iron, and they're all useful in different situations. I once used part of a sail in an emergency as well."

Hiccup noted this and sketched the fin- this time with a quill and ink, as he didn't need to go anywhere at the moment and it was more precise than charcoal.

"But for the first one, keep in mind that it may catch fire during the fight with the Red Death, so try to use your least flammable option available."

Hiccup nodded and added the tip.

"I'll show you exactly how it works after I take it off of him. Now, Toothless has straps here and here that hold the cords in place. These rings here go around his front legs and you click this pedal into different positions to open and close the fin. The pedal here, on the other side, controls the angle, up and down. The saddle is self-explanatory- a strap here to hold on to, hooks here if you're wearing a harness, padding to make it more comfortable, and saddlebags can be attached here."

Toothless flicked his tail a little impatiently.

"Alright, we're taking it off. You good so far?" Vinr checked, and Hiccup nodded. Hiccup made sure to watch carefully as his mentor undid the various straps and buckles, then laid it out on the floor. Toothless wriggled and shrugged his shoulders once he was free before giving his rider an affectionate lick all over his vest.

"Hey!" Vinr protested as the dragon bounded gleefully out the door. Then he sighed. "Another thing you should know- Night Fury saliva doesn't wash out."

Hiccup bit back a snicker and stepped forward to take a closer look at the tail mechanism as its maker slid the protective leather covering off.

"If you have questions, ask, but seeing as we have the same brain, I'm sure you can tell how it works."

Hiccup could indeed tell exactly how it worked, and made sure to draw every last detail.

"You're getting a bit more of a head start, too- this is not the tail we fought the Red Death with, there's been a bunch of improvements made over the years since."

Hiccup nodded in understanding- he didn't think he would have had time to design the little gear mechanism in secret during dragon training. That is, the other Hiccup wouldn't have had time.

"And this lever locks the tail open…" Hiccup muttered, examining it. "Why would you do that? Unless you only wanted to fly level or make only right turns...?"

"Ah, the first one. I lock it open when I jump off and use the flightsuit."

"It's still dangerous!" Astrid called from another room in the house.

"Toothless hasn't failed to catch me yet!" Chief Hiccup replied. "I admit there have been a few close calls, but you're not fully realizing how cool it is!"

Hiccup quietly added the lever and tail lock to his sketchbook.

The next day, Chief Hiccup went back to his Chiefly duties, and Hiccup tailed him. Hiccup had done it before, tailing his father, but had usually ended the day more discouraged, seeing how difficult it would be to follow in his father's footsteps, especially considering his lack of brawn. But Hiccup found following his older self much better- his leading style was, naturally, something that Hiccup could easily see himself doing, once he could wrap his head around it.

Stoick was a good leader, and his method of bashing people's heads together when they were being dumb was highly effective, but Hiccup couldn't do that. Neither could Chief Hiccup. The current Chief calmly reasoned with people and came up with ideas to fix problems, rarely getting angry, which Hiccup guessed made it much more effective when he did.

When the day was out, Hiccup certainly wasn't ready to be Chief, but he found himself dreading the prospect a bit less.

 **A/N: Hi all! Sorry it's been a bit, and that this one's on the shorter side. But I have a goal to get Hiccup back to his own time by the end of the weekend. I live in Hawaii, so my weekend might end a bit later than yours because of this lovely thing called 'time zones.'** **I have also written the first several chapters of the other story I mentioned in the previous A/N, the one in the bookverse with a few of our favorite movie characters, and I'll post that soon.** **Please review, it makes me happy and helps me know how to improve and what to keep doing the same :)**


	6. Chapter 6

As soon as Hiccup woke up the next morning, he was told to pack a bag.

"Wait, are we going somewhere?" he wondered, seeing Vinr and Astrid also were packing some supplies.

"Yep- Dragon Island," the chief replied.

"The nest?" Hiccup checked.

"It'll be a bit of a trip, but I think it'll be good for you to scope out the area before you have to take on the Red Death. We'll get there this afternoon and be back sometime tonight," answered Astrid.

"Do I need to bring anything in particular?" wondered Hiccup.

The Chief stopped to think for a moment. "Food, a skin of water, and your sketchbook is all I think you'll need."

Hiccup nodded and found a leather bag to hold everything, then followed his future counterpart outside, where he was met by the Haddocks' dragons, along with Fishlegs and Meatlug.

"Snotlout and the twins should be here in a minute," the Viking said when Vinr gave him a questioning look.

"If it's alright with you, you'll ride with Fishlegs on Meatlug," the Chief told Hiccup. "It should be different from what you're used to- with the experience you have so far, at least- and I trust them not to try anything crazy."

"I am offended!" Tuffnut exclaimed as he, Ruffnut, and their dragon arrived. "How dare you suggest that I am unable to safely escort our dear Thirdandahalf?"

"Because he knows you, bro," Ruffnut replied. "The flight is seven hours. It's too much of a temptation."

Tuffnut grudgingly conceded her point, and Snotlout arrived on Hookfang a minute later.

"Here, Hiccup," Fishlegs said.

"Yes?" two voices answered.

"The smaller one- I mean- Andahalf," Fishlegs said, giving in. He offered a hand and Hiccup accepted, pulled into Meatlug's saddle.

Toothless gave a roar and took off, flapping his powerful wings and jumping into the air. Meatlug and the others had to step forward to gain momentum before taking to the sky. Vinr lifted a hand to acknowledge Valka as she watched them go.

Hiccup gripped the saddle as they ascended, but looked down at the village. He had only seen it in the air from a distance, and it was an incredible sight. Hiccup watched the island fade behind them as they headed northwest until it vanished over the horizon.

"So," the chief eventually said, turning towards Hiccup, "We're going to be flying a while, so I think this is a good time to tell you about everything that happened after we made peace with the dragons."

Hiccup spent the rest of the journey listening to tales of Berk adjusting to life with dragons, disagreements and battles with Alvin the Treacherous and Dagur the Deranged. Then he heard about the dragon hunters and trappers, the Dragon Eye, the Defenders of the Wing, and Dragon's Edge. Hiccup was a bit overwhelmed by all the information- it might not happen quite the same to him, and probably wouldn't as he was forewarned- but to think that only a week before he had just been hoping to literally survive dragon training and get on with his life… it was a lot to take in.

Once he had finished asking questions and they had taken a break to eat in the saddle, Vinr and the others launched into the story of the short war with Drago Bludvist. Hiccup listened, curious but not too surprised at that point, to how the chief had found his mother and how he had then been tracked down by his father and Gobber. He went on to tell about the battle that took place when Drago found them, but faltered partway through.

"Uh… What happened when Drago's Bewilderbeast killed the good one?" Hiccup prompted.

"See… You have to understand about Alpha dragons," Vinr said haltingly. "As far as we know, dragons have three levels of leadership- pack leaders, kings or queens, and the Alpha. Any dragon strong enough can be a pack leader, and generally they lead by the consensus of their followers and packmates. We don't know much about Kings and Queens- only that they have some sort of control over the minds of their subjects, otherwise the dragons that were enslaved by the Red Death would have just flown away and left her to fend for herself or starve. We think that whether a dragon is considered a King or Queen depends on the size of the nest, and maybe the species of dragon. But the Alpha… there is only one Alpha. It can be challenged, probably only by certain species, but unless it is being challenged, it has complete and absolute control over the minds of other dragons if it so chooses, and it is nearly impossible to break from that control." Vinr was deadly serious, his eyes beseeching Hiccup to understand.

"That's… bad," Hiccup said slowly, a feeling of dread growing in him. "The new Alpha isn't anything like the old one?"

The chief nodded. "We didn't know much about Alphas, our mother knew the most, but she only knew the first Bewilderbeast- a very kind and benevolent Alpha. But the new one was under Drago's control."

"So… this Drago Bludvist… essentially ruled over and controlled all the dragons," Hiccup said.

"Yes. And what he first did… please remember, this is in the past- well, our past- and it may not even happen in your future, so _please,_ don't hold it against him."

"Against… Drago?" Hiccup asked, confused.

Vinr shook his head. "The Alpha took control of Toothless. He fought it as hard as he could, but the Alpha had control in the end, and told Toothless to fire a blast at me."

Hiccup waited for the other shoe to drop. Vinr was obviously alive and well, but he knew this wouldn't- hadn't- ended well.

"In the end, he was forced to fire… but Dad jumped in front to protect me."

Oh. _Oh._ Hiccup hadn't been told how Stoick had died, and it came as a bit of a shock to him. He glanced at Toothless, and the Night Fury seemed upset, pupils wide but ear flaps pinned back and mouth turned down. As Hiccup looked, the dragon gave a sad warble, and his rider patted his head consolingly.

Hiccup met the eyes of his older self and was struck by the weariness he saw there, yet there was stubborn strength as well. Hiccup the Chief had seen much and lost much, but he would keep going, no matter what. In that moment, Hiccup both understood and felt worlds apart from the other. He understood because it was how he felt, going through life scorned and ignored, in a village where injury, death, and grief was commonplace, but still going… and yet he had done nothing, seen nothing, compared to this other Hiccup. Even so, he suspected that the both of them still had a ways to go. Such was the life of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third.

He gave a nod, and he knew that the other understood as well. Hiccup would not hold his father's death against Toothless as long as he knew that the dragon had fought his hardest- and he was sure he had. But by Thor, he was going to do all he could to stop it from happening in his time.

"What happened then?" Hiccup asked, breaking the silence. "Where is the Alpha now?"

"Drago and his men left, taking all the dragons with them, except the babies that were too young to listen to the Alpha. After the funeral, we headed for Berk on the backs of baby Scuttleclaws, where Drago was already attacking. He was riding Toothless. I flew up to them and told Toothless that I forgave him… that he was my best friend. It was hard, but he threw off the Alpha's control. We fought, and eventually an ice blast was fired at me, but Toothless jumped over me to protect me. We were encased in ice. Toothless… I really don't know what he did. He built up a plasma blast from the inside, and the ice exploded off of us, and Toothless glowed blue from the inside- challenging the Alpha."

"To protect you," Astrid added softly.

Hiccup smiled. "Drago's Bewilderbeast couldn't hold all the dragons under his control once he was challenged. Toothless fired at him, and the other dragons fired at him too. Once Toothless' shot broke off one of his tusks, he gave up, surrendered, and left. I wondered a little why, because he was so much bigger and losing a tusk was hardly a major injury, but I think it was because he didn't truly want to be Alpha. He had to somewhat, maybe taking his frustrations out on the dragons he controlled, but only because he was enslaved first. Toothless… Toothless truly wanted to protect the dragons, and all of us, and had their loyalty."

"Hiccup said as much. 'This is what it means to earn a dragon's loyalty,'" Fishlegs remembered.

Hiccup was speechless. He looked at the Night Fury in awe- the Alpha, the king of all dragons.

"Toothless is the Alpha," he finally said. The dragon looked back at him, regarding him solemnly as he lit up blue, light emitting from his spines and within his head.

So much for avoiding spending time with and learning about Toothless. But Hiccup realized this would not ruin the development of his relationship with the dragon back home- he still did not know the dragon personally, did not feel a close kinship with him. But he did have a great sense of respect and hope for his future with the Night Fury, offspring of Lightning and Death itself.

They reached Helheim's Gate a couple hours after noon. Hiccup eyed the forbidding mists warily- he had never before been there in person, but his whole life ships had been going, most never to return. He knew now that he should be perfectly safe going in, but he had a healthy respect for the place.

They went in, the dragons navigating between shrouded columns of rock with ease. They had once lived here and brought offerings to the Red Death here, and Hiccup supposed it would be a hard place to forget.

The fog ended as they came upon the island, which was dominated by a volcano. The cries of wild dragons rang through the air, and with the bright afternoon sun helped to dispel the eerie feel of the place.

A pair of Zipplebacks circled them curiously as they approached before flying off. The group turned to circle the island, and Hiccup scanned the ground, wondering if he would be able to see the remains of the Red Death.

When they rounded a bend, Hiccup let out a gasp. It was impossible to miss. A colossal skull laid on the beach, hundreds of monstrous bones behind it.

"You… fought… _that?"_ Hiccup said weakly. "And Bewilderbeasts are even larger?"

"Yep." They all circled the area before landing on the beach. "When you fight it, you'll have to draw it out first. You can do what we did- or what my father had done, that is. See the giant hole in the mountain?" Vinr pointed at a huge gaping cave that was filled with dragons, and Hiccup nodded. "That didn't used to be there. Break it open with catapults, the dragons will flee, and the Red Death will do the rest."

Hiccup looked around. Along with the skeleton of the more-than-huge dragon, there were lots of skeletons of ships. Obviously they needed ships to bring the catapults, but could he stop more than half of Berk's fleet from being destroyed? Maybe if after the catapults were set up, the ships were sent to the other side of the island… He would think about it, but it seemed like a reasonable idea at the moment.

"You'll be better prepared than we were," Hiccup continued, "Maybe you can weaken her before you get her into the air… If you have a better idea, by all means go with it, but for now let's work under the assumption that you're going to blow her up from the inside with her gases."

Hiccup agreed, unable to come up with a superior method of defeating giant dragons at the moment. They stayed for the better part of an hour, flying around, looking at the area, and looking at what remained of the Red Death. After walking around and stretching their legs, they got back on their dragons and began the return journey to Berk.

The return trip was mostly spent adding details of what exactly had happened during the group's stay at Dragon's Edge and the years beforehand, as so much had happened, and there was an abundance of jokes, teasing, and reminiscing. Hiccup couldn't help smiling through the whole thing, knowing that if things got rough back in his time, this was the image that would carry him- the Vikings who were in training with him, best of friends, tried and true and loyal to each other and their dragons, soaring through the sky.

 **A/N: Thank you all for reading! Please favorite, follow, review, etc, tell me what you liked, what I can do better, haikus inspired by my story... anything, really.**


	7. Chapter 7

The next day was Hiccup's last full day in the future. For most of the morning, he watched Vinr teaching some young dragon riders in the ring, while also going over the new-and-improved dragon manual one last time. He noticed that instead of fancy maneuvers and practicing aim like with the older riders, they were mostly working on team-building exercises.

In the meantime, the older riders wrote the letters to their past selves, as the Chief wasn't entirely sure that some would leave it to the last minute. Fortunately, there were no problems, as Astrid and Gobber were willing, Fishlegs was enthusiastic, the twins were eager to prank themselves, and Snotlout just went with it.

Hiccup smiled to himself when he saw that one of the young riders was with the yellow Nightmare he had befriended, and another was with the Zippleback.

He then looked at the twins apprehensively, as they were snickering to themselves as they wrote their rather long-looking letter. "You're not telling your past selves how to prank me, are you?"

"Don't worry, Thirdandahalf," Ruffnut replied.

"We told us not to prank you for a while," Tuffnut added.

"But we are giving us a rather inspirational list of pranks we've done over the years."

"Believe it or not, Andahalf," Snotlout said, rolling up his scroll, "We're not out to get you again."

"I didn't mean it that way," Hiccup said quickly.

Snotlout shrugged. "Either way… We're- I mean, I'm really sorry about how I treated you and teased you. You're a great person, and I didn't see that. I know the Chief's forgiven me, but I hope you can too."

"Uh, no problem," Hiccup said, surprised and a little touched. "Thanks, Snotlout."

"Don't mention it," his cousin replied, going a little red and looking at the ground.

"We're sorry, too," said Tuffnut.

"We told us to take it easy on you," added Ruffnut.

"Thanks… Don't you prank the Chief, though?"

"Of course we do," Tuffnut said.

"But what matters is why we prank people," continued Ruffnut.

"We prank the Chief because we're his friends."

"Some people we prank because they happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"And some people like Mildew deserve it sometimes."

"But we pranked you for the wrong reasons."

Hiccup was a little surprised, he hadn't realized that Snotlout and the twins had felt that way, or that the twins had a method to their madness and apparently had their own boundaries. Maybe they had just grown up. Either way, Hiccup appreciated it, and he gave them a smile.

They continued to watch the training while finishing up their letters, which they handed to Vinr, who had a bag to put them in.

Hiccup followed Vinr around until late afternoon, when they had an early dinner. They had plans to go down to the forge afterwards so Hiccup could see the drawings for some of the new inventions around the village.

Astrid joined them, and the rest of the dragon-riding gang sat down with them soon after. Hiccup tried to avoid the pleading eyes of a Terrible Terror as he ate, as he could see five more perched nearby and really didn't have enough to feed them all. But the problem was soon solved when Tuffnut accidentally dropped a drumstick and was swarmed by the Terrors instead.

One of the dragons hopped up next to Hiccup anyway, and he recognized it as the same Terror he had fed on his first day there. It felt like a lifetime ago. Hiccup smiled fondly as he snuck a piece of chicken for the dragon while the others continued to assault Tuffnut. That was one thing he was going to miss- the people and dragons here. The people, he supposed, he would technically see again in five years or so, but he didn't know about this Terrible Terror, or the purple Nadder and the yellow Nightmare. And he would miss Vinr, though he would technically also be him in five years.

And, when he returned, he would again be alone. But that would change, if all went according to plan. Hiccup almost envied his counterpart, who had likely not felt as if he had an almost impossible weight on his shoulders to end the war, instead just going along with everything and trying to keep the Night Fury in the woods a secret. But Hiccup was truly grateful to be forewarned and forearmed with everything he had learned and had been taught.

Hiccup was jolted from his thoughts when Gustav came running in. "Chief! Chief! We're under attack!" he cried.

"Slow down," Vinr said, standing up from the table, a grin slipping from his face. "What do you mean? What happened?"

"I was flying down south with Fanghook when we saw seven ships coming towards Berk, they were armed and had catapults and stuff."

"Did you see their sails? What tribe are they from?" Chief Hiccup asked calmly but seriously.

"I think on the sails there was a green Monstrous Nightmare with an axe and a spear crossed behind it."

"Rough Ruffians," Hiccup muttered. He glanced at Vinr, who nodded in confirmation.

"Oh, the dog tribe," said Tuffnut understandingly.

"What?" Snotlout wondered.

"Ruff ruff," replied Ruffnut. Hiccup bit back a snicker.

"How far out?" the chief asked, ignoring them.

"Half an hour by dragonback."

"How was the wind?" asked Fishlegs.

"From the south, strongish and steady," Gustav replied.

"They'll probably be here an hour or so after nightfall," Vinr decided, after checking with Fishlegs. "My guess is they felt like raiding someone and they don't like us because of our dragons, but if it's only seven ships like you say, it shouldn't be too hard to fight them off."

"Should we fly out to meet them?" Astrid asked.

"No, we don't have enough skilled riders and dragons to take on that many fully-armed ships, especially going against the wind. They could pass by us, but if they don't, we'll let them come. Then our dragons will have the cover of night and we'll have the home advantage and our own catapults, and the dragons without skilled riders can defend as well. We might get a peace treaty out of them if they surrender."

"What do you want us to do?" Snotlout asked.

"Astrid, Snotlout, go find some men and make sure our defenses are ready. Ruff, Tuff, Fishlegs, help get the women and children into the Mead Hall. Gustav, gather the A-Team and have someone patrol around the island, to the south and near the village. I'll have Toothless talk to the other dragons, and I'll help Gobber fix more weapons and shields in the forge. If the ships are spotted from the village, find me. Hiccup, come with me."

Hiccup jogged after Vinr as they hurried to the forge.

"I think you might have to go home a bit ahead of schedule," the chief said once they got there.

Hiccup nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I'm not much help in a fight. But if you guys are going to attack on dragonback before they make landfall, do you think I should watch that?"

Vinr considered. "If you hurry to the cave as soon as they land, you should be safe. For now… it doesn't look like Gobber's around, so help me out here."

Hiccup grinned- now this was something he knew how to do. While the chief started up the forge and spoke to Toothless, he took weapons from the 'dull' pile and began sharpening them.

The two of them were soon joined by Gobber and they worked for an hour or so, the Chief often pausing to answer the questions of some villager and give orders. A few more warriors came in to get their weapons fixed and sharpened, but between the three of them, they were soon done.

Gobber went out to help direct and organize people, and Vinr turned to Hiccup.

"I don't know when else I might have anything resembling a break, so I'll give this to you now." He handed Hiccup the bag with the letters in it and ducked into the back room. He came out holding a shield that was a soft silver color and a folded piece of paper. "And here- this shield is plated in Gronckle Iron, so it's strong and light. I thought about painting a Night Fury on it like mine, but I figured that would raise too many questions, and you can do it yourself later."

"Wow, thank you," Hiccup said, taking the shield and hefting it. It did indeed feel lighter than other shields he had held.

Vinr slapped a hand to his forehead. "Shoot, I forgot to give you the formula for Gronckle Iron. Hand me your sketchbook."

Hiccup fumbled with it for a moment in his vest pocket and gave it to him. Vinr quickly jotted the formula down on an empty page and handed it back.

"Now, this," the chief opened the folded piece of paper to reveal a large map, "is a map of everywhere I've traveled. It's not the original, as that's made of a bunch of smaller papers. Maybe you can add to it someday."

Hiccup was overwhelmed by the vastness of the map, and by the generosity of the Chief- he had to have spent time copying out every detail on the map, and making the lightweight shield. "I don't know what to say… Thank you, Vin- ah, Chief Hiccup."

"It's no problem. What were you about to call me?" the Chief asked with a confused frown.

"Uh, Vinr. It was easier to call you something other than 'Hiccup' in my head," Hiccup admitted.

Vinr smiled when he remembered the meaning of the word. "We're all going to miss you… I'm going to miss you. It's been like having a little brother."

Hiccup realized that he was right- Vinr fit perfectly into the role of older brother, if he had had one. "I'm going to miss you too. Do you think I'll ever see you again?"

The Chief knew he didn't mean the people he would be with in five years. "I don't know. I guess that's up to the will of the gods." He put a hand on Hiccup's shoulder. "And remember- you're Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third-and-a-half. I'm only the Third. You can become even more than I am if you choose to."

Hiccup just nodded, his throat thick with emotion.

"Chief! The ships have been spotted coming around to the village!"

Vinr stepped outside into the now dark night, and Hiccup followed, and found the rest of the main riders and their dragons waiting.

"Will you be going tonight?" Astrid asked, spotting the shield and map Hiccup held.

"Yeah. Probably safer for everyone," but he smiled, to show he didn't really mean it.

"Then I suppose it is time to say goodbye. We have gifts for you as well, young Thirdandahalf," Tuffnut said.

"Though it pains us to do so, we are giving you one piece of blackmail on our younger selves," Ruffnut said, handing Hiccup a folded piece of paper.

"Uh, thanks," Hiccup said. It was the oddest gift he had ever received, but he could see it being useful.

"Don't lose it," Tuffnut warned. "You should probably destroy it after you read it."

"I will," Hiccup said with a chuckle.

Fishlegs pulled out a leather bag and opened it to reveal a few different pockets. "This is a sort of dragon emergency bag- there's a vial of Monstrous Nightmare gel, a vial of Zippleback gas, a packet of dragon nip, jars of healing and burn salve, and a small mirror."

"Thank you. This is incredible," Hiccup said, slinging the good leather bag over his shoulder.

"Snotlout and I both worked on this one," Astrid said next. Hiccup was a little surprised, but didn't comment. She pulled out what looked like a multicolored bracer, but Hiccup wasn't sure in the dim light. "We tracked down all the dragons you've befriended- these five, the four you trained, and the Terror, got scales from all of them, and Snotlout-"

Snotlout interrupted with a small cough.

"-And it was stitched together," Astrid finished. She handed it to Hiccup and he saw that it was indeed a bracer made of shed dragon scales.

"Thank you," Hiccup said, admiring the colors in the torchlight, and more importantly, that they had thought to give him a reminder of all of them and the dragons.

"Chief!"

"We really do have to go now," Vinr said. "As soon as the Ruffians set foot on Berk soil, get down to the cave and cut yourself with the Lightning Bolt."

"I will," Hiccup said, fingering the cord around his neck as the other riders and dragons took off. "Goodbye, Vinr."

"Farewell, and may the gods be with you, Thirdandahalf."

Hiccup's face twisted into a smile as Toothless leapt into the air, roaring a challenge to the Vikings that dared to attack his home.

Hiccup hurried to the cliff edge nearest to the invading ships in time to hear the scream of a diving Night Fury and to see a blast of blue fire punch through the deck of the leading ship. The other dragons followed, setting aflame and disabling the catapults on the ships within a matter of minutes.

But the invaders fought back, and Hiccup flinched as he heard the pained cry of a Nadder whose wings had been pierced by arrows. The battle continued, waves of dragons flying over and then retreating as they reached their shot limits. Hiccup wasn't sure in the darkness, but he thought the Chief and the Alpha remained circling above the ship, firing an occasional shot and shouting orders and encouragement.

Hiccup watched fearfully as Snotlout and Astrid landed on the decks of ships, defending their dragons as they shot spikes and set themselves aflame. Hiccup spotted Cloudjumper as well, firing at ships and then diving to land on one hard enough that the force of his weight rocked the whole ship.

But when the ships came near the cliffs, a few archers started firing up at the onlookers, and when Hiccup narrowly avoided being skewered, he decided it was time to go. He turned and ran to the arena, then past it into the forest on the other side, panting as he reached the beach with all the extra stuff he was carrying. He stopped. What if all his new stuff didn't come with him? He thought it would… after all, his clothes and his sketchbook had come with him there. He guessed the most immediately important thing he had with him was the designs for Toothless' tail and saddle, which was written in the sketchbook… Surely the book would come back with him and not leave the future ink on its pages behind.

Hiccup checked one last time to make sure he had everything and stepped into the dark cave. He put on the bracer and shield, tucked the papers and sketchbook into his vest, and held on to the dragon bag and bag of letters slung over his shoulder with one hand for good measure. He pulled the stone out of his shirt and tugged off the sheath with one hand, then awkwardly pressed his palm onto the sharp edge, cutting it. Nothing happened.

Hiccup frowned. Maybe he had to let his blood drip onto the floor of the cave… he let go of the stone and let it hang around his neck, then bent to touch his bleeding palm to the floor.

Hiccup collapsed and the world went black.

 **A/N: Thank you all! If you feel so inspired, please press the little button below to leave a review!**


	8. Chapter 8

Light began to filter through the windows, waking Hiccup from his usual spot on the floor with his furs. Strange, he didn't remember going to sleep… And why did he have bags and a shield with him under the blankets?

Hiccup quickly sat up and looked around the room. The fire was burning low, no new wood added by someone up early to ride his dragon. There were no sketches of dragons hung on the walls, but instead weapons.

He was back.

Hiccup pulled the furs off and set the shield aside, then checked to make sure he hadn't broken any vials or crushed any of the scrolls in the bags while he slept. Once it was confirmed he hadn't, he stuck his head out the door to see that it was morning, around the time he normally woke up, so he was good timing-wise, so long as he hadn't slept an entire day or anything.

Hiccup put the furs away and took his things up to his room, carefully stashing his sketchbook, the letters and other papers, the emergency dragon bag, and the dragon-scale bracer under his bed. After a moment of thought, he pulled out the dragon bag and removed some dragon nip just in case.

He went back downstairs. The house seemed oddly quiet after a week living with three people and the occasional dragon. He grabbed his shield and the axe his father had given him and headed down to the Mead Hall to get breakfast. He saw Fishlegs and Snotlout at one of the tables and was about to walk over before remembering that they weren't the same people he had known the day before… yet. He got food and sat at another table in the relatively empty hall, then followed when the other two teens headed to the ring.

The twins and Astrid were already there, waiting in the entrance when they arrived, but Gobber wasn't, so Hiccup stood off to the side, staring at the wall and sneaking glances at the others, trying to wrap his mind around the weirdness of the situation he was in. Fortunately, nobody else seemed to notice.

"Alright, come ahead in!" Gobber called. He had apparently been setting up the maze of walls while they waited. "Today you're facing the Deadly Nadder! Spread out through the maze!"

Hiccup realized he wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to observe, as was his plan, because he was surrounded by tall wooden walls. He found a spot on the edge of the arena where he didn't think any of the planks would fall on him and where he wouldn't be attacked from behind.

He heard the cranking of the Nadder cage opening and ducked behind his shield, wishing he could just drop the axe. There was no way he could hit Stormfly with it and it was just going to make her mad and slow him down.

"Today is all about ATTACK!" yelled Gobber, somehow now at the bars above the ring. "Nadders are quick and light on their feet. Your job is to be quicker and lighter."

"I'm really beginning to question your teaching methods!" yelled Fishlegs from somewhere in the ring.

Hiccup decided to ignore him and commit to staying in his corner, out of the Nadder's way. But the dragon had other ideas. Hiccup only heard the creaking of boards before a fiery blast blew the top off his axe.

"WHOA- Oh, great," he groaned, holding his shield up as he ran into the maze. Be careful what you wish for and all that. At least he wouldn't need an axe again if all went to plan.

Now weaponless, and more confident for it, he continued with his plan of staying out of the way, but his free hand kept twitching towards his vest pocket where he had the dragon nip. He really didn't like having an unfriendly dragon after him where he couldn't see it.

"Look for its blind spot. Every dragon has one," Gobber advised. "Find it, hide in it, and strike."

Hiccup heard the twins arguing, Stormfly blasting them, and Gobber chuckling and reprimanding them. At least now he knew where the dragon was.

"Hiccup. Get down," Astrid hissed as he found himself rounding a corner to see her and Snotlout. The Nadder was apparently in a nearby corridor, as Astrid silently rolled on her shield past the gap, and Snotlout followed. Hiccup groaned mentally and did the same, miraculously making it probably courtesy of his light shield and lack of weapon. Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly silent and Stormfly quickly turned to them.

Now in a better position, Snotlout threw his hammer- "Watch out, babe, I'll take care of this"- and missed. Hiccup bit back a smile as Stormfly _laughed_ at him.

"The _sun_ was in my _eyes,_ Astrid," Snotlout protested as the girl ran off into the maze. "What do you want me to do, block out the sun? I could do that, I just don't have time right now-"

Hiccup heard crashing as the thin board walls were knocked over by Stormfly, who was no longer acting very light on her feet, and he tried to run to a safer part of the arena. He looked up at the top of the nearby walls frantically-

"HICCUP!" Astrid cried from the top of a wall as said wall started to fall on him. Hiccup yelped and stepped back, holding up his shield, and was knocked flat on the ground when Astrid's axe hit it and slid off, becoming embedded in the fallen wall, and Astrid herself landed on top of Hiccup.

"Uhh-"

"Ooh, love on the battlefield," Tuffnut teased.

"She can do better," Ruffnut decided as Astrid stood up and tried to yank her axe out of the board, eventually giving up and stomping the board with her foot to break it. Hiccup winced as she whacked Stormfly with the wood chunk end of her axe, but at least it wasn't the sharp end.

"Well done, Astrid," Gobber called.

"Is this some kind of a joke to you?" Astrid snapped at Hiccup as the Nadder retreated. "Our parents' war is about to become ours." She pointed the top of her axe at his face. "Figure out which side you're on."

Hiccup let out a breath as she turned away. There was no way he was going to reply, though he knew the answer. And they would too, in a few days.

The others started to walk away and Hiccup stood up and surveyed the arena. He doubted he would be able to find his axe head under all the fallen walls, and it was probably just a misshapen hunk of metal now anyway. Nadder fire was hot. How exactly was a wooden shield supposed to protect them?

Hiccup shrugged and walked out of the ring. Then he remembered- now he had to befriend the Night Fury trapped in the woods.

Hiccup hurried home to grab his sketchbook and some fish- three seemed like a good number to start with- along the dragon nip already in his pocket. He left his knife and, after a few minutes of internal debate, his shield as well. It occurred to him to grab a loaf or bread in case he was there a while. Then he went through the back door and into the woods.

He headed towards Raven Point and then wandered a while, as the last time he had actually gone to the cove had been a week before to him. But soon Hiccup found what he was looking for- a small ground-level gap that a young and thin Viking could enter through without climbing.

Hiccup crept through, looking around but not seeing the Night Fury. His heart thudded- What if this dragon decided to be less forgiving? He really should have brought his shield- but he went ahead, pulling out one of the fish he had brought with him.

He turned and let out a small gasp as he suddenly saw the black dragon crouching on a rock, eyeing him and the fish as it slunk down and turned to face him a few feet away. Hiccup could tell he was hungry, sniffing the air hopefully before bending low and growling menacingly in distrust. Though he was nervous, he looked at the dragon in awe- it wasn't as big and mature-looking as the Toothless he had seen, but it was sleek, aerodynamic and graceful on both the ground and in the sky, and probably the sea too. Anger, hunger, a little fear, and intelligence burned in his yellow-green eyes, and Hiccup now could see that his scales were not quite pure black, but almost spotted and mottled in camouflage.

Hiccup nervously switched the fish to one hand as he opened his vest, then the other side, revealing no knife in his belt or pockets. The dragon's growls ceased, turning into a confused croon.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Hiccup said shakily. "I'm really sorry about shooting you down. I-I brought you some fish."

The Night Fury considered for a moment, pupils widening and ear flaps lifted, before inching forward and extending his head, jaws open wide to reveal pink gums as he reached for the fish.

"Toothless," Hiccup said, grinning triumphantly, and he only jumped a little when the dragon lunged and snapped the fish out of his hands.

He bit the fish in half as he tossed it in the air, then caught it and swallowed, licking his lips in satisfaction. He rumbled in his throat and stalked towards Hiccup, who quickly pulled out the other two fish and gave them to the hungry dragon.

"That's all, I don't have any more," Hiccup said quickly, backed into a rock by the Night Fury. The dragon rolled his eyes back in his head and started making weird sounds in his throat until he coughed half a fish into Hiccup's lap.

"Eww… Uh, thanks?"

Green eyes looked expectantly at Hiccup, then at the fish.

"You… want me to eat it?" Hiccup asked incredulously. Vinr hadn't mentioned this, had he? Hiccup grimaced and lifted the fish to his mouth. He tried to take a small bite, but the fish's rounded side was awkwardly shaped and he ended up with more than he intended. The fish wasn't bad, just weird and raw and _wrong._ The remnants of dragon saliva, on the other hand…

"Hm-hmm?" Hiccup offered the rest of the fish to the dragon as he tried to keep from gagging. But the Night Fury simply lucked his lips and swallowed pointedly.

"Hmmf." Hiccup managed to force the fish down his throat after a few seconds and then shuddered before giving a weak but hopeful smile to the dragon.

The Night Fury tried to imitate him, giving an awkward, gummy smile, and Hiccup reached to touch his snout, but the dragon snarled and turned away, flying clumsily over the pool and landing on the other side to make a bed with his flames, before lying on it, apparently intending to take a nap.

Hiccup frowned- he had gone too fast. He doubted the dragon feared him, but was still annoyed and distrustful. He took a deep breath and walked over to the dragon, sitting by his head, which was hidden by his tailfin.

The Night Fury heard him approach, and lifted the fin to eye him suspiciously, but when Hiccup just sat still, he dropped his tail again and seemingly ignored the Viking.

Hiccup waited a minute, gathering his thoughts, before speaking. "Hey, Toothless. I hope you're comfortable, because there's a lot I have to say to you. I have no idea how much of it you'll understand, so I'll explain the finer points again someday when you have a better handle on Norse."

Toothless lifted his tail and looked at Hiccup, curious in spite of himself.

"I was the one who shot you down. You know that, you're smart. It's my fault you've lost your tailfin and can't fly anymore."

Toothless narrowed his eyes, not happy with the reminder.

"I'm sorry. I really am. If I had truly realized the consequences, I would never have taken that shot. But I know better now. This is the part that will sound crazy and I don't think you'll understand yet- I was taken five years into the future, and saw what life around here would be like if things went on without the time-travel. And what I saw was incredible," Hiccup said, staring off into space as he visualized, not noticing Toothless' ear flaps pricked in mild interest. "I saw the village of Berk, a Berk which my other self had recently become Chief of, and the streets were filled with Vikings… and dragons. No fighting, no deaths, just peace and friendship. The people there taught me, and helped me know what I need to know if that future is possible here. You and me- we're at the center of it."

Toothless looked confused.

"Me, of all people? Yeah, I know, it's hard to believe. Or maybe you just don't understand a word I'm saying. Well, whether you understand or not, there's peace, and it's amazing. So much changes and improves… The Red Death, your Queen, is dead. We defeated her. And you are flying. I can make you fly again."

Toothless stared at him intently, unsure if he was getting Hiccup's meaning correctly. Hiccup still didn't really get how the whole dragon-understanding-thing worked, and didn't know how else to explain. He looked at the ground in thought… He could draw in the dirt!

"Be right back," Hiccup said, walking to the nearest tree and picking up a stick on the ground. He returned to the dragon and knelt, feeling curious eyes on him.

First he drew a picture of Vikings and dragons at war, then he drew a picture of them getting along. Above it he drew a picture of what he thought the Red Death looked like, based upon the descriptions and the skull he had seen.

He glanced at Toothless, who had lifted his head and was looking at the drawings in surprise, ear flaps perked and pupils wide.

"See? Now, if we take out the Queen-" he crossed out the image of the Red Death- "then we'll have peace." He crossed out the picture of Vikings and dragons at war, then pointed to the Peaceful image.

Toothless looked a little shocked. Not by the conclusions he had drawn **(Ha, ha)** , he surely realized that the Queen was the reason for the war, but maybe by the fact that Hiccup was intelligent enough to understand, that Hiccup knew about the Red Death, that he seemed to want peace, or that Hiccup realized the Night Fury's intelligence and was truly attempting to communicate.

"Got it?" Hiccup asked hopefully. Toothless turned to him and looked as if he was re-evaluating the teen all over again.

"I'll take that as a yes. Now look at this," Hiccup continued, feeling encouraged.

He drew another dragon, and drew a rider on its back. Toothless looked puzzled, so he drew a couple more dragons with riders, flying and happy. Toothless snorted in confusion.

"I know it seems weird, but yes, if there is peace, we will get along well enough that Vikings will ride on the backs of dragons. I still haven't figured out why, what exactly you get in return… Friendship? A companion with opposable thumbs? Free fish?" He sketched Toothless' outline in the dirt, like he had in his sketchbook. "In case you couldn't tell, this is you." He drew himself next to Toothless. Then he drew himself on Toothless' back. Toothless snorted, but Hiccup waited until he had the dragon's attention again before very deliberately drawing in the left tailfin.

Toothless let out a soft croon of surprise and confusion.

"Yeah. You will fly again. The fin won't grow back- at least, not within five years for sure. I took your flight and your freedom, I am honor-bound to give it back to you. I will make a new tailfin for you, with metal and leather or cloth." Hiccup had another idea and walked back to the tree, this time breaking off some thin twigs and branches. Then he sat beside Toothless again and arranged the sticks on the ground in a semblance of the skeleton of the artificial fin. He moved the sticks back and forth a few times to show how it would open and close. Toothless watched, wide-eyed. Hiccup cautiously picked up the sticks and laid them near Toothless' tail, in a 'closed' position, then stepped back.

"Here's the thing. You can't make it open and close on your own." He stepped towards the tail again, and deliberately opened the stick-frame fin. "But if I ride you, I can control it."

Toothless stared at his tail and the sticks, a faraway look of hope and loss in his eyes, seeing but not really believing.

"I can make it work. See the plans I already have here." Hiccup pulled out his sketchbook and flipped to the relevant pages, then holding the book up for Toothless to see, crossing his fingers and hoping the book wouldn't be blasted. The dragon's eyes flicked between the ground and the book, comparing the two.

"I'll be back the day after tomorrow with a hopefully functioning tailfin and saddle," Hiccup said. He drew one last sketch in the dirt- of him and Toothless, soaring through the sky. The saddle and rigging were clearly visible, but they were flying, and that was what mattered.

Toothless stood up and walked over beside Hiccup to look at the drawing. After a minute, a low, hopeful croon escaped his mouth.

"Peace. Flight. Freedom. We can have all of it…" Hiccup turned to face Toothless, and Toothless turned to meet his eyes. "But we have to work together. Neither of us can do this on our own. I need you… to trust me, and in return, I will trust you."

There was a moment of silence, then Hiccup lifted his hand again towards the snout of the Night Fury. Toothless looked at his hand, and Hiccup turned his head, bowing it out of trust and respect, and waited.

A moment later, warm, smooth scales pressed against his palm, and Hiccup lifted his head to see Toothless, his own eyes closed, touching his nose to the Viking's hand.

"Thank you," Hiccup said quietly, trying to keep his hand from trembling. "I won't let you down, I promise."

 **A/N: Yaaay! And so it begins...**

 **Review, leave comments, suggestions, questions, your favorite Lucky Charms marshmallow and why, etc.**


	9. Chapter 9

Hiccup quickly got to work. First, he sketched out the whole contraption in a new section of dirt, close to actual size. Then, after pointing out different parts of the harness, he took Toothless' various measurements and noted them in his sketchbook.

"There… I can start on this tonight," Hiccup said, pleased, then put the sketchbook back in his vest. Toothless wandered off and started peering in the lake for more fish.

Hiccup watched him for a while before pulling out his loaf of bread, and he doodled in the dirt as he ate. Toothless came to investigate a minute later and found a pretty accurate representation of himself- not a diagram or an explanation this time, just a drawing.

He watched curiously before pulling a branch down from a tree and, holding it in his mouth, tried to draw with it. When he was finished, if Hiccup tilted his head and squinted a little, it looked a bit like a dragon.

"Wow… uh, very nice," Hiccup said when the Night Fury looked to him for approval. "Come here." He beckoned to the dragon, and Toothless stepped towards him.

"See, I just have weak little fingernails, but I can hold a stick with my hands to draw. You don't have much control if you hold the stick in your mouth, but if you use your claws…" Hiccup picked up Toothless' paw and curled his claws into a sort of dragony fist so that only his 'pointer finger' was sticking out. Then he pressed the Night Fury's claw into the dirt to make a scratch.

Toothless hummed, pleased, and spent a few minutes scratching lines and squiggles into the dirt before drawing a simple but unmistakable Night Fury.

"Nice… Really nice, bud," Hiccup said, pleased and impressed. He laid a finger on the drawing and Toothless growled at him, but Hiccup just removed his hand and chuckled.

Eventually the sun began to get lower in the sky, and Hiccup went home to nap before staying up all night to work on the tail. The village was mostly deserted, and though he thought he could see Snotlout and the twins across the square when he came down from the forest, he was left alone as he went to his house.

After taking a quick nap, he went down to the Mead Hall and ate dinner. He saw Gobber there as well, and hurried to the forge- there was a chance that the smith would return, and hopefully he wouldn't ask too many questions if Hiccup was already halfway through his project.

When Hiccup got there, he gathered his materials, laid out his plans in the back room, and took a deep breath before starting to work.

The next morning, Hiccup was tired but cheerful. He had finished the metal frame of the tailfin and the rings that would go around Toothless' front legs. He ate breakfast, took another short nap, and brought a basket of fish down to Toothless. The dragon seemed happy to see him, and even more pleased when Hiccup showed him the parts he had made the night before. Hiccup compared the metal frame to the actual tailfin, and was glad to see that they were the same size and shape as he had intended.

Then he returned to the forge and continued working.

By nightfall, he had finished all the metal parts, the pulley system, and the leather of the tailfin. He almost forgot about dinner up on the watchtower, where they were doing 'team bonding.' Hiccup stayed silent as Gobber spun his tales and Snotlout boasted. He couldn't help but shiver when Gobber mentioned 'a downed dragon is a dead dragon.'

The next day, his downed dragon would hopefully be in the air again. Hiccup was impatient to leave, and did so as soon as Gobber dismissed them, in the midst of an argument over tattoos and birthmarks.

Hiccup was exhausted the next day, and had slept past breakfast, but he had finished- saddle, tail, harness and all, including a harness for himself so he wouldn't fall off. He had hidden everything in his room an hour before dawn and fell asleep, only just waking up in time for that day's dragon training class.

Hiccup took a moment to remember what they were doing that day- Barf'n'Belch, the Zippleback! He quickly got ready, only yawning a little as he rushed to the fish storage and grabbed an eel. He wrinkled his nose as he slipped it under his vest and rubbed it over his hands.

He thought for a minute about leaving the eel and just taking dragon nip, but he decided that since today would be the public transition from 'useless, never-where-he-should-be Hiccup' to 'top of his class, dragon-training Hiccup,' he wanted to make an impression, maybe show the dragons that he was someone to respect and take seriously but he wouldn't harm them. Plus it might make things worse instead of better if the others saw the Zippleback happily sniffing him instead of backing away in fear. But once he had this first impression down, Hiccup would be nice. No more eels.

When Hiccup got to the ring, Gobber was handing out buckets of water and the teens' weapons were left on a rack off to the side.

"Good, everyone's here. Pair up!" Gobber called.

Snotlout tried to catch Astrid's eye but she quickly and smoothly offered to partner with Ruffnut. Tuffnut went with a mildly disgruntled Snotlout, leaving Hiccup and Fishlegs to pair up.

"Today is about teamwork," Gobber announced as the Zippleback cage opened, spewing pale grey smoke that quickly filled the arena and made it impossible to see five feet in any direction. "Now, a wet dragon head can't light its fire. The Hideous Zippleback is extra tricky. One head breathes gas, the other head lights it. Your job is to know which is which."

Hiccup and Fishlegs stood back to back, Fishlegs nervously muttering to himself. "Razor sharp, serrated teeth that inject venom for pre-digestion. Prefers ambush attack, by crushing its victims-"

"Would you please stop? It might hear you," Hiccup hissed. Then he had a horrible thought- what if someone else found the Zippleback and successfully disabled it first? Astrid would probably succeed if it was near her, and Snotlout or the twins could get in a good or lucky shot. He supposed he could try again the next day, but he already knew how Barf'n'Belch would respond to the eel, and didn't feel as confident with Stormfly or Meatlug, who might just blast the offending fish and Hiccup with it. Plus he needed every day he could get to make sure Gobber and the others were impressed enough to listen to him later.

Hiccup heard the other four teens bickering as they ran into and apparently splashed water onto each other. At least that was a couple Vikings with empty buckets and out of the way.

A second later Tuffnut was dragged off, if Hiccup heard right, and he clutched his own bucket uneasily. He wanted to find Barf'n'Belch first, but he didn't really want the dragon to find _him._

" _Oh_ I'm hurt, I am _very_ much hurt!" Tuffnut yelled, and Hiccup saw him running out of the arena, where the smoke was thinning.

"Chances of survival are dwindling into single digits now," Fishlegs moaned nervously. Hiccup glanced back at the entrance to see all four other teens, buckets empty.

Hiccup and Fishlegs jumped as a Zippleback head came out of the smoke. Hiccup's heart skipped a beat when Fishlegs clumsily splashed his bucket on the dragon head, but it turned out to be Barf, the gas spitter, who had an almost smug expression on his face as he let out his sickly green gas with a gurgling sound. Fishlegs ran, screaming, and Hiccup was alone.

A breath of wind came and cleared all the white smoke, and Barf'n'Belch stood tall in front of Hiccup.

"Now, Hiccup!" Gobber shouted, and Hiccup tossed his water up at Belch, who easily dodged, simply lifting his head higher.

"HICCUP!" cried Gobber fearfully as the Zippleback hissed triumphantly and advanced. But Hiccup stumbled, using the opportunity to open his vest a little, both to rub a hand on the eel again and to let the dragon get a glimpse of it. He slowly stood up, hand outstretched.

"Back. Back. Back!" He put his hand in its faces, and it recoiled, slowly retreating, hissing. "Yes, that's right, back into your cage. Now think a minute about what just happened," he finished, hoping the dragons would realize he hadn't and wouldn't hurt them. He closed the doors and surreptitiously wiped his hands on his vest.

The teens and Gobber stood, gaping in shock, and Fishlegs dropped his bucket.

Hiccup bit back his smile at the priceless expressions on their faces. "So, are we done? Because I have some stuff I have to take care of… Yep, see you all tomorrow!"

He ran for it, guessing they probably wouldn't be able to move for another minute or two. He finally burst out laughing once he was a safe distance away, and was still grinning when he reached his house. He grabbed a basket of fish and the finished saddle, harness, and tail, and headed out the back door into the woods, whistling cheerfully.

 **A/N: Yay! Flying next chapter! Thank you for reading, please leave a review- What did you like? What can I do better? What is your favorite kind of Oreo cookie?**


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